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During my years as Curator at the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, I was privileged to meet and work with many international scholars. Each would bring their own distinct expertise. Occasionally, someone would come with heightened perception and through their eyes, and using their focus, I would discover aspects of the collection which had escaped me.

Lisa Vandegrift Davala was one of those illuminators. Together, we studied the Library's collection of livre d'artiste and the ethiopic manuscripts and prayer-scrolls. The ethiopic material had a special attraction for both of us and discussing the curious pull and special attraction of apparently crude drawings and simple satchels, we concluded that they had somehow been imbued with the spirit of their long-dead creators.

When the envelope arrived in Dublin recently with the photographs and maquettes of Lisa's work, my scalp tingled as I looked at them. Here again was this fusion of soul and substance, this spirit captured butterfly-like on pages of arches paper or tucked into satchels of goat leather. And I ached to touch them-and therein lies the true genius of this artist. By choosing to create something so small, so intimate, is to exclude the mass audience and to invite a personal, individual response. Very few other works of art will be so closely held, so often handled as the book. The formats chosen by Lisa are special and the tools - ink, paper, gold-leaf, leather - belong to the ancient craft of illumination and illustration.

The livre d'artiste is an endangered species and so rare sightings of perfect examples must be treated as special occasions. Lisa's work deserves to be seen and shared for it does not merely echo its models, but challenges the form- just as into every family occasionally a special child is born.

Dr. Patricia Donlon
Director, National Library of Ireland
Dublin

Patricia Donlon is former curator at the Chester Beatty Gallery and Library of Oriental Art, Dublin, Ireland. She is currently a Trustee at the Chester Beatty and served as Director of the National Library of Ireland.

Reprinted from L. Vandegrift Davala, Alleluias of Love: Selected Works 1979-1991