Provenance: Former Galerie Maya Behn, Zurich.

The Japanese artist Araki Takako is known internationally for her ceramic “Bible” series.

She creates clay copies of the book of books, the Bible, by inscribing delicate layers of clay using the silk screen process. Her books are often shimmering and fragile, half or completely open, but have reverted to stone, or appear to have become eternalised in a heavy plinth. Also, her bibles are never intact, and each one is marked by a fate. “They carry traces of destructive forces, which gently or violently affect the binding, the paper and text, precisely recorded and captured with incomparable care.” (Rudolf Schnyder, curator of the Landesmuseum Zurich)

Takako sees the Bible as a symbol of western culture and a vanitas symbol of Christian belief. Araki is an atheist, her father a Zen priest, and her brother a practising Christian. Her works are imbued with doubt, which she sets in opposition to religion, triggered by the suffering of her brother who became ill with tuberculosis.

Until the age of 31 Araki Takako followed the family vocation as a florist, until she started her art studies. Thereupon she specialised for one year in sculpture in New York, and finally also in Japan, where she garnered high honours in various national competitions.