Issue 44 explores the complicated, profound, and often uneasy relationship between public art and the spiritual life. Eleanor Heartney examines some recent controversies over religious imagery in public projects in America and Europe, and discovers that the culture wars have entered a new phase. Four prominent artists: Ned Kahn, Lily Yeh, Tyree Guyton, and Agnes Denes, tell Arlene Goldbard how their spiritual lives inform their work and their sense of themselves. Jon Spayde profiles two young artists, one Christian, one Muslim, who embrace traditional religions but work in iconoclastic, irreverent styles: conceptualism and graffiti. And Suzi Gablik makes some recommendations for turning down the heat that religious differences generate in a rapidly globalizing world.

The Featured Region for Issue 44 is Southern California, and we present three reports from the field in Brazil, San José, and Germany. Conference reports from North Carolina, New York, and Winnipeg, along with recent publications, book reviews, news, and recent projects round out the issue.