The Grace Museum wants to take you to Paradise.

Organized by the Rochester, N.Y.-based George Eastman House, "Picturing Eden: Exploring Contemporary Visions of Paradise" is a 153-photo exhibit featuring 37 national and international artists that will transport viewers to contemporary visions of paradise.

Organized around four themes -- "Paradise Lost," "Paradise Reconstructed," "Despairing of Paradise" and "Paradise Anew" -- the exhibit is based on a theme that resonates across time and cultures, said Judy Deaton, curator of arts and exhibits at the museum.

The notion of an ideal place free from strife, a place of consciousness where one may seek and find God, is charged with spiritual, political and environmental meanings, she said.

While the photographs displayed are testaments to the power of current creative technologies, they tie into concepts drawn from humanity's deepest longings, Deaton said.

"It's not all that often that an art exhibit has such a spiritual context," she said. "We think that it's an excellent basis for a dialogue. This is a part of being human that we have all dealt with for a very long time."

The word "paradise" itself comes from a Persian word meaning "enclosure."

Striving to grasp the unseen spiritual world, humans have traditionally used gardens as symbols of paradise and immortality, Deaton said.

In the "Epic of Gilgamesh," an Akkadian tale that contains one of the world's oldest visions of paradise, a garden is described with "crystal branches in golden sands," with a "tree, with trunk of gold and beautiful to see."

"Eden" itself may derive from an Akkadian word meaning "steppe" or "plain." In Hebrew, Eden means "delight."

The Greeks believed paradise to be a place of supreme bliss.

Christians adopted the term to mean the home of God, the place where the virtuous will live after death in the presence of God, Deaton said. In the Koran, paradise is the reward for the faithful, symbolized by an idealized garden with shaded fountains and pavilions.

The development and changing styles of the garden and the notion of paradise have been as integral to cultural points of view of religion, art, literature, poetry and philosophy, Deaton said.

Artists in the exhibit were challenged to interpret our connections to the ancient garden symbols.

"The exhibit examines some more contemporary ideas about what paradise is than the early images of Adam and Eve in the garden so many of us are familiar with," Deaton said. "... It asks us to consider closely what we think and feel about paradise."

Modern people often try to create their own paradise, especially by bending nature to their own desires, she said.

But nature also endures and fades without our assistance, or perhaps despite of it.

So a video, part of the exhibit, shows a leaf deteriorating. A photograph shows trees in cages. And another photo shows plants breaking through concrete in Paris.

The exhibit is sponsored in part by the Abilene Interfaith Council.

Angela Nicolini, "Guide" for the AIC, said that when Dennis Kois, the Grace's director, approached her group about the exhibit and asked it to be part of a forum discussing different religions' views on the Garden of Eden, "we weren't at all sure we wanted to participate," she said.

"But after he and his curator, Judy Deaton, showed us a small presentation of the artists' renditions of the garden, and told us more about what he envisioned for the forum, we were convinced that this was a worthwhile exhibit -- and that it would help the Abilene Interfaith Council share our message of tolerance and understanding with the community," Nicolini said.

AIC member Sammie Garza, a member of the Baha'i faith, said there are many references to Paradise or Heaven in her faith's writings.

"Basically, Baha'is believe that Paradise or heaven is nearness to God and we could achieve that by acquiring Godly and spiritual attributes in this world," she said. "We believe that we can gain these spiritual attributes, through the grace of God and submission to his will."

Paradise lost: museum takes precautions regarding nude imagery

In an exhibit inspired by the Garden of Eden, it's not surprising that there's a small amount of skin. After all, Adam and Eve were traditionally unclothed before the Fall.

But in planning for "Picturing Eden," The Grace Museum has taken precautions to avoid controversy and a repeat of the public relations disaster that stemmed from a September 2000 art exhibit.

In September 2000, an exhibit featuring paintings by French masters featured four nudes. The paintings were pulled from the exhibit when it was announced some Abilene Independent School District students wouldn't be allowed to attend the show if the nudes were included. The event generated a great deal of community discussion about the nature of art and children's exposure to it.

The current show contains 90-100 contemporary photos. Two contain nudity, said Dan Carpenter, the Grace's spokesman.

These two images have been "sequestered" behind a wall with warning signs that read "This section of the exhibit contains images of nudity. Parental discretion advised," Carpenter said.

The show also contains one 19th century etching of Eve being expelled from the Garden of Eden; and the earliest known daguerreotype of this subject, from 1845, about the size of a postage stamp. In both images, Eve is topless.

These two items are not sequestered because of their historic nature and because they are used to introduce the concept of the exhibit.

AISD Superintendent David Polnick has viewed all the images in question, and supports having AISD teachers bring their students, Carpenter said. AISD also has a permission form teachers will have parents sign to ensure all families are informed about the content of "Picturing Eden" before classes take field trips to The Grace.

-- Brian Bethel