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    The True Gospel Preached Here
    The True Gospel Preached Here
    The True Gospel Preached Here
    Ebook88 pages37 minutes

    The True Gospel Preached Here

    By Bruce West and Tom Rankin

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    Bruce West's color photographs document the spiritual and creative work of a self-proclaimed preacher, artist, architect, the Reverend H. D. Dennis, and his wife, Margaret, in Vicksburg, Mississippi. This book explores the fantastic world of the elderly couple who devoted more than twenty years of their lives to converting Margaret's Grocery store into a one-of-a-kind nondenominational church. Guided by visions from God, their elaborate transformation of Margaret's Grocery involved the construction of several towers, the creation of the Ark of the Covenant containing tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments, and new religious iconography. A sign at the entrance announced: "Welcome Jews and Gentile This Church Open 24 Hours a Day." Another sign promised: "The True Gospel Preached Here." Bands of high-gloss red, white, blue, green, yellow, and pink paint covered the towers and exterior. Religious artifacts, Mardi Gras beads, plastic flowers, hubcaps, and flashing Christmas lights encrusted the interior walls and ceilings and an old school bus. The Reverend used his church as a roadside attraction to lure seekers so that he could deliver fiery sermons and orations about the need to "practice living perfectly" and the ceaseless pursuit of spiritual wisdom.

    The product of twenty years of labor and multiple site visits, West's photographs are both intimate and transparent, tenderly revealing the Reverend and Margaret's love of God and for one another, their commitment to their work, and their shared transformation while aging together. The images offer unique insights into the role of spirituality in southern folk art and creativity and the joys and demands of an ascetic and inspired life.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherUniversity Press of Mississippi
    Release dateApr 10, 2014
    ISBN9781626741416
    The True Gospel Preached Here
    Author

    Bruce West

    Bruce West is a professor in the Department of Art and Design at Missouri State University. His photographs have appeared in numerous exhibitions throughout the United States and Europe and are included in museum collections such as the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, the Library of Congress, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, and the Victoria and Albert Museum. His photographs have appeared in American Photography 14; The Next Generation: Contemporary Expressions of Faith; and For, From, About James T. Whitehead: Poems, Stories, Photographs, and Recollections.

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      Book preview

      The True Gospel Preached Here - Bruce West

      SEVEN DAY HOUSE OF PRAYER

      Tom Rankin

      The right sentiments displayed on a hand-painted sign next to a curious building will stop a driver on any road. If not stop, at least make you wish you’d stopped. Driving south on Highway 61 in 1989 toward Vicksburg I turned right onto Business Route 61 wanting to hug as close to the river and the levee as possible as I eased into Vicksburg. Like anyone driving that road in the late 1980s, I went from simply looking at the landscape on the outskirts of Vicksburg to a palpable awe at what I was seeing, leading me to slow and come to a dead stop. Transfixed by Margaret’s Grocery on my right, I tried to figure out what I was looking at. The original sign said Margaret’s Gro & Mkt., but there was so much else going on. Looking at the building was like listening to a music I’d never heard, something played in an unfamiliar but deeply melodic key, on some newly unknown instrument. I had no context for understanding the colors—the red and white of the masonry and tri-color pastels of the roofing material covering the store porch—or the wash of biblical, Masonic, and evangelical words and symbols. There was nothing to do but get out of the car and investigate up close.

      While Margaret’s Grocery was in some ways always under construction and in the midst of perpetual creation, added to, or repainted, my first visit was in the early phase of Reverend Dennis’s work. What struck me most as I walked from my car toward the store were two ladders Reverend Dennis made in order to reach higher. These ladders were constructed from assorted wood boards, 2 x 4s and 2 x 6s, some of the boards painted red, some white, others plain wood. They were obese and overbuilt, solid, grand pieces of sculpture resting against the building. One leaned firmly on the cinder block and brick entry tower, held in place by its own excessive weight. The other ladder, matching in form but smaller, went up to the roof of the original store where Reverend Dennis had added towers and steeples and decorative caps, each new piece contributing to his masterful transformation of a neighborhood market into a veritable tabernacle of spiritual welcome.

      Early in the artistic life of this space, certainly on that day in 1989, Margaret’s Grocery was a powerful creative confluence of functions: a public expression to attract even the most unmovable traveler; a spiritual and aesthetic statement of compassion and welcome; a church for those who might find themselves in need of a house of worship; and, of course, a store where all were welcome to trade, exchange news, and, in time, hear the story of Margaret and Herman Dennis as told mostly by Preacher Dennis. Like any photographer who can tell time, I had to make pictures. After talking to Margaret and Reverend Dennis, I unpacked my view camera and got to work, accompanied much of the time by Reverend Dennis and his compelling and melodious narrative.

      I can’t remember exactly how many times I went to Margaret’s Grocery to photograph Reverend Dennis’s temple construction. Each time I went, though, I unloaded my same 8 x 10 camera, made sure I had plenty of time to visit with both Margaret and Reverend Dennis. One time I climbed on the roof of the old store in order to photograph one the Reverend’s

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