Virginia Chieffo Raguin

The Illuminated Window is a unique journey through stained-glass installations that spans both time and place. Diverse in technique and style, these windows speak for the communities that created them. From the twelfth to the twenty-first century, we find in the windows stories of conflict, commemoration, devotion and celebration. Virginia Chieffo Raguin is our guide through the cathedrals of Chartres, Canterbury and Cologne, and takes us from Paris’s Sainte-Chapelle to Swiss guildhalls, Iran’s Pink Mosque, Tiffany’s chapel for the World Exposition, Frank Lloyd Wright’s houses and more. As she reveals, the art of stained glass relies on not only a single maker, but the relationship between the physical site, the patron’s aims, the work’s legibility for the spectator and the prevailing style of the era. This is a fascinating and beautifully illustrated volume for anyone interested in stained-glass works.

The first monograph on the work of a groundbreaking artist in stained glass. From her start in the 1980s, Judith Schaechter (b. 1961) has stretched the medium of stained glass into an incisive art form for the twenty-first century, boldly paving her path in the diverse arena of contemporary art. With deep respect for history, a provocative rebelliousness, and a feminist sensibility, Schaechter has aptly been called a "post-punk stained-glass sorceress." This catalog accompanies "The Path to Paradise: Judith Schaechter's Stained-Glass Art", the first survey and major scholarly assessment of this groundbreaking artist's 37-year career. This catalog explores the range of critical registers Schaechter's work spans, illuminating and contextualizing the artist's unique contributions to the contemporary canon. Published in association with the Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester NY