DENVER ART MUSEUM'S "I HAVE NEVER READ THE BIBLE"

CALIFORNIA LITERARY REVIEW
March 16, 2011

Jim Campbell_ "I have never read the bible"
by Jim Campbell (1995)

COLORADO -- A new exhibition of artworks from the Denver Art Museum's collection, Blink! Light, Sound, and the Moving Image, is all based on electronic and time-based media. One work which has an overtly religious theme is by artist Jim Campbell, who builds a work around the language of the King James Bible. Campbell’s piece, entitled I Have Never Read the Bible (1995), consists of a well-worn, leather-bound Victorian edition of Webster’s dictionary, mounted on the wall and hooked up to a speaker. Campbell recorded himself speaking each letter of the alphabet aloud, and used this recording to create an audio track on which each letter of the Bible is spoken aloud, in order, from beginning to end. Listening to a full repetition would take 37 days. The exhibit is on view from March 13 to May 1, 2011. [link]