Heaven is an exploration of the secular religion of popular culture as it flourishes in contemporary society.
Although institutional religion has gradually lost its centrality in Western society, the psychology of religion persists in such things as celebrity worship, consumer culture, the ecstasy of raves, and the cult of the body, which equates beauty with virtue.
Heaven finds a religious aura lurking in places of seemingly purely secular significance, and illustrates how paradise has been paved and put on display at the local mall.
This book looks at the work of thirty internationally prominent artists, including Sylvie Fleury, Gilbert & George, and Jeff Koons, and features essays by noted authors and scholars such as Thierry de Duve, Jean-Luc Nancy, and Samuel R. Delany.
Doreet LeVitte-Harten, born in Isreal in 1948, is an art historian and curator, living and working in Berlin.
