In 1999 Chicago created a suite of six illustrations to the Old Testament Song of Songs. Based on a translation by Marsha Falk that alternates between a man’s voice and a woman’s, the suite has been described by art historian Edward Lucie-Smith as “a celebration of ecstatic union.” The images and accompanying text were printed at Graphicstudio in Tampa, Florida, using a combination of heliorelief (a modern form of woodcut printing) and lithography. In diptych format, each image is paired with an ornamented excerpt from the Song of Songs in both Hebrew and English.
