The text drawings of Meg Hitchcock are examinations and dissections of the word of God, according to varied disciplines. The artist deconstructs a sacred text by cutting its individual letters and reassembling them to form a passage from another holy book. The Koran is transformed into the Bible, the Bible into the Bhagavad Gita, and so on. Hitchcock discourages a literal reading of the text by eliminating punctuation and spacing; a sentence from one text merges with a passage from another. By bringing together the sacred writings of diverse religions, she undermines their authority and is able to speak to the common thread that weaves through all scripture.
The labor-intensive aspect of Hitchcock’s work is a meditation practice as well as an exploration of the various forms of devotion. A long history in Evangelical Christianity formed her core beliefs about God and transcendence, but she later relinquished the Christian path. She found herself gravitating toward Eastern Mysticism and is deeply moved by Islam. The work is a celebration of the diverse experiences of spirituality and the universal need for connection with something greater than oneself. ‘In the end,’ says the artist, ‘the holy word of God may be nothing more than a sublime expression of our shared humanity.’
Meg Hitchcock lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. She received her BFA in painting from the San Francisco Art Institute and studied classical painting in Florence, Italy. Her work with sacred texts is a culmination of her lifelong interest in religion, literature, and psychology. Hitchcock’s work has been shown in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, London, and Berlin, and reviewed in Art in America, ArtCritical, The New Criterion, Huffington Post, Hyperallergic, and The Daily Beast. Her work is included in “State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now” at Crystal Bridges Museum in Arkansas.