The Dog Chapel: Welcome All Creeds, All Breeds, No Dogmas Allowed

by Stephen Huneck

Overview

"I wanted to build a chapel, a place that celebrated the spiritual bond we have with our dogs, a place that would be open to all dogs and to people of any faith or belief system." - Stephen Huneck

Welcome all creeds, all breeds! No dogmas allowed! Welcome to The Dog Chapel, artist and visionary Stephen Huneck's heartfelt offering to dog lovers everywhere. This book takes readers to Dog Mountain in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, where Huneck, after a brush with death and a near-miraculous recovery, was inspired to build his chapel for dogs. A tribute to the love, humor, loyalty, and solace dogs brought to his life during this difficult time, the book, like the chapel itself, is ultimately a celebration of life for all of us.

Styled in the manner of a nineteenth-century village church, the renowned chapel draws visitors and dogs from all over the world. The Dog Chapel features more than thirty of Huneck's touching and playful woodcut prints of dogs. It also includes Huneck's remarkable account of his illness and recovery, the story of how he came to envision and build the chapel, and full-color photographs of the chapel and the sanctuary.

This poetic and uplifting realization of one man's remarkable dream will touch readers everywhere and reaffirm the importance of the connection we have with one another and with our pets.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780810934887
Publisher:	ABRAMS
Publication date:	11/01/2002
Pages:	80
Product dimensions:	8.75(w) x 8.75(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	13 - 18 Years

Editorial Reviews

In his preface to this lovely hand-drawn paean to a real-life construction project, Huneck, author of the beloved Sally-based children's books, explains how his canine church came to be. When Huneck fell victim to Adult Respiratory Distress Syndrome after breaking some ribs, he had a near death experience in which a dog-headed figure came to him, and sold him a fantastic dog sculpture that seemed to contain the secrets of life itself. When Huneck, against predictions, recovered, he was seized with the idea of building a dog chapel on his "Dog Mountain" spread in Vermont. He began construction in 1997, and the eight pages of color photos here show a dignified New England structure as enjoyed by canine denizens. But the real impression of the book is made by Huneck's signature prints and captions ("If your dog is your guru, you could do a lot worse")-featuring dogs of various breeds and deeply empathetic miens. Few of them seem to involve the chapel itself, making the book somewhat disjointed, but beautiful blocks of color and careful hatching work make for wonderful canine tableaux: dogs as portrait sitters, children's companions, objects of affable affection, guide workers, and angels. Even the most jaded cat lovers will have trouble dismissing it. (Nov.) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

A true artist can transform the ordinary into the extraordinary. Such is the case with Charles "Teenie" Harris (1908-98). Dating from the 1940s through 1960s, these 135 duotones are a combination of press work (crime scenes, celebrities, etc.) from the Pittsburgh Courier (Harris was the first black photographer to join Pittsburgh's Newspaper Guild), formal studio portraits, and candids of fellow residents from the city's all-black Hill district. A neighborhood is a living, breathing organism, and these pictures touch its pumping heart as they record subjects at work and school, at lunch counters and bars, at ballgames and barbershops, and in church. It's not glamorous but very real, and Harris captures it with grace (and a Speed Graphic!). An introductory essay by author Crouch and a brief biography by photography scholar Deborah Willis (Tisch School of the Arts) accompany the plates. Harris is the real thing, and this first collection of hopefully many he had more than 80,000 images to his name is a stunning debut. Highly recommended. Michael Rogers, "Library Journal" Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal