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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A roadside attraction worth making a detour for, if not a "pilgrimage",
By
This review is from: Dickeyville Grotto: The Vision of Father Mathias Wernerus (Folk Art and Artists) (Paperback)
I first visited Dickeyville on a long weekend tour around Wisconsin with my mother, sometime in the neighborhood of 1997-98, shortly after this book was published. We didn't really set out to look into all the obscure little roadside attractions that the state seems to be full of, but whether we tried or not we certainly ran across several of them, and the Dickeyville Grotto was probably the most memorable and impressive.
Religious grottos, typically built by Catholic priests in small communities, have a tradition in the midwest, particular in Iowa and Wisconsin, going back a century or more. Susan Niles' informative and scholarly little book traces just a bit of this history (I'd have liked more) but mostly focuses on the work of Father Mathias Wernerus (1874-1931), a Belgian-born, German-speaking priest who emigrated to Wisconsin shortly after the turn of the century and proceeded to construct this fascinating folk-art grotto of concrete, cement, glass, quartz and other stones, and a variety of other materials found and bought, in the small town of Dickeyville a few miles from the Mississippi River in the southwestern part of the state. She describes Wernerus' parish and the town a bit, tries to answer the question of how he came to decide on building the grotto, describes the work and its cultural and religious significance, and writes about his contemporary Paul Dobberstein, who built the Grotto of the Redemption in West Bend Iowa, beginning in 1912. Wernerus started the Dickeyville project in 1920, finishing just before his death and there are many similarities between the two, though there was at the time this book was published no hard evidence that the two artists were aware of each other's work. The text makes up half of this 72-page book and is illustrated by several detailed plans of the grotto as it stands today; the second half of the book is taken up by quite beautiful color phots of the grotto and its details, as well as some plates of the Grotto of the Redemption and a couple of other similar midwestern shrines. Anybody interested in this fascinating sub-genre of American folk art is strongly urged to check out this book - and take a tour of the Grotto itself and the many other interesting and unique roadside folk-art attractions in that part of America.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
How can you not love Dickeyville?,
By S. Livingston "Art Goddess" (Champaign, Il) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Dickeyville Grotto: The Vision of Father Mathias Wernerus (Folk Art and Artists) (Paperback)
After visiting Dickeyville Grotto as a child, I have never quite been the same. This amazing midwestern grotto is simply too bizarre not to leave its mark, and this book captures the story of its birth. There could be more images and a little fresher of images as well, they look a bit dated, however, there is a wealth of knowledge about the Midwestern grotto tradition in this book as well as enough images to pique your curiosity. Personally I would head to Wisconsin and check the grotto out for myself, but if you can't make it, the books a nice stand in.
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