Customer Reviews

John Ransom Phillips: A Contemporary Book of the Dead

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Essays by Zahi Hawass and Wendy Doniger accompany JOHN RANSOM PHILLIPS; A CONTEMPORARY BOOK OF THE DEAD, a powerful consideration of funerary texts drawn from the Book of the Dead but melded with art for modern readers. Using watercolors on papyrus, this collection of John Ransom Phillips's paintings creates a fine blend of modern interpretation and ancient spiritual reflection and is perfect for both art and spirituality collections.

What a beautiful book!
John Ransom Phillips' paintings on papyrus are deliciously seductive and dreamlike. One's own creativity is stimulated by looking at his pictures. An invitation to get lost in one's own imagination and dreams. This is a book that never loses its attraction, a book that can be opened time and again, to be instantly transported into the private world of our senses and emotions.
And all along a sweet smile touches the soul.
This is truly a celebration of 'Going Forth by Day' by paying tribute to the old Egyptian Book of the Dead in a most wonderful way by imaginatively 'translating' it into modern times.

John Phillips is a scholar of life and art. He marries these two domains in an exquisitely produced book of reflections and watercolors that are modern in composition yet hail to that which is ancient and familiar. A wonderful collectors book or gift for someone special.

This book is BRILLIANT. Modern society owes a lot to Egyptians, as do we to John Ransom Phillips, author and visionary extraordinaire. I've personally seen John's work in person--the color, flair, and spirit. This book comes straight from spirit and not only brings the Egyptians alive, but our own souls. Art comes alive through John's amazing skill.

John Ransom Phillips' "A Contemporary Book of The Dead" is an engrossing
collection of texts and watercolors on papyrus that presents, in the fragile
beauty of its art and naturalness of its poetry, a fascinating
reinterpretation of the ideas of the afterlife. Phillips models his book on
the ancient Egyptian text "The Book of The Dead", an exploration of the
afterlife created over 3,000 years ago during the height of the Egyptian
civilization. His scrupulous preparation and love of the subject is shown
particularly in the beauty and profundity of his watercolors of teardrops.
With text containing no more than 4 short lines and watercolors occupying a
mere fraction of the papyrus canvas, Philips communicates the multifold
symbolism of a teardrop and its relation to the afterlife.



The essays by Zahi Hawass, an expert on ancient Egyptian antiquities, and
Wendy Doniger, a specialist in the history of religions provide a welcome
artistic and historical background and understanding of Phillips' book. What
separates Phillips' "A Contemporary Book of The Dead" from others is its
versatility: you can enjoy for its art, or for the light it throws on
ancient Egyptian culture, or the philosophies of the afterlife. Yet, the
most satisfying attribute of "A Contemporary Book of The Dead" is it ability
to compel the reader to reexamine their own lives with this vastly gained
understanding of the afterlife.

by Christopher Sahar