Imitation of Christ

“My Jesus was a real person who did not perform miracles and was not resurrected after death. He was a political revolutionary who, in the face of circumstances that appeared hopeless, succeeded revolutionising the spirit.” William E. Jones This illustrated essay, by US artist William E. Jones, was born from a collection of images selected from the Hammer Museum archive in LA. Jones unearthed a striking photograph by Pedro Meyer of a wounded guerrilla fighter in Nicaragua during the early 80s. This image became a prism for his selection of a further 45 images from the archive, ranging from Renaissance and Baroque prints to documentary photographs, modern Latin American art and rare books. This hybrid essay, built from both text and image, confronts two conflicting questions: how is it possible to make an image of revolution, and how is it possible to make a religious image? Examining the parallels between images of revolution and religion, Jones explores connections between images insp