Congratulations to Bard Graduate Center professor Ittai Weinryb, and all involved in the conception and production of the Agents of Faith Exhibition Catalogue, which was awarded the 2019 Art + Christianity Book Award. This award commends a book that makes an outstanding contribution to the dialogue between visual arts and religious faith.

Sir Charles Saumarez Smith, chair of the Book Award judging panel said of the winning book: “This is a book which is slightly different in kind and character from the other books, because it is multi-author, written by a wide range of international scholars who collaborated over a long period of time in writing about votive objects. As we talked about the book, it became clear that we all admired it hugely for its originality, its wide compass, the fact that it was an exhibition catalogue which makes a major scholarly contribution to its subject.”

Named one of The Best Art Books of 2018 by the New York Times, this powerful catalogue explores votive offerings in the context of material culture, art history, and religious studies to better understand their history and present-day importance.