Bible Box c. 1936

Bernard Gussow painted this Bible Box, we don't know when, but it's watercolor on paper. The humble bible box, rendered in gentle brown washes, it's an object of quiet contemplation, isn't it? I can almost see Gussow hunched over this, patiently layering each stroke, feeling the weight of the object in his mind. I imagine the artist was drawn to its simple solidity, to its promise of holding something sacred, a repository of faith. And I wonder, did he find a certain peace in the act of painting, a meditative echo of the box's intended purpose? The way the light catches on those rounded edges, the subtle grain of the wood, it all speaks to a reverence for the handmade, for the beauty in everyday objects. Painting is also like that: a process of revelation.