Simon Glass


The Thirteen Attributes of God, 2001

“The Thirteen Attributes of God” is a suite of thirteen silver prints. The text, which appears on the prints, and from which the suite derives its title, is of biblical origin and can be found in the liturgy of the Jewish High Holidays. The thirteen attributes themselves, some of which are holy names of God, and others of which are attributes like merciful, gracious, truthful, slow to anger and forgiving, are invoked on Yom Kippur (The Day of Atonement), in what is usually a fervent bid for forgiveness. The seemingly ironic juxtaposition of this text with photographic images which suggest sensory experience and mortality addresses loss, belief, doubt and anthropomorphic ideas about God.