Artist James Turrell is being celebrated this summer with no less than three major museum exhibitions, including a monumental installation in the rotunda of the Guggenheim Museum in New York City.

Back in 2000, Turrell was inspired by the Jesuit Willem van Hees’s (Guilelmus Hesius) 1636 Antwerp emblem book Emblemata Sacra: Spe, Fide, Charitate and created his own Emblemata. Although I don’t believe he was looking at Princeton’s copy, we can do just that and compare the two side by side thanks to the recent acquisition of Turrell’s project. According to the book’s colophon “Turrell responded to the engravings in that book by creating images of his own which are here presented with the originals in sequence.”

James Turrell, Emblemata (Tempe, Arizona: Segura Publishing Company, 2000). Graphic Arts collection 2013- in process

Gulielmus Hesius (1601-1690), Gvilielmi HesI antverpiensis è Societate Iesv Emblemata sacra de fide, spe, charitate (Antverpiae, ex officina Plantiniana Balthasaris Moreti, 1636). Gift of Silvain S. Brunschwig. Rare Books (Ex) N7710 .H36