For a recent issue of the International Journal for the Study of New Religions, Carole Cusack reviews Iconophages: A History of Ingesting Images by Jérémie Koering. Click here to learn more about the book. Click here to read the full review. An excerpt appears below:

“This excellent book was originally issued as Les Iconophages: Une histoire de l’ingestion des images (Arles: Actes Sud, 2021). The English translation is a welcome addition to the small literature addressing the eating of images. Koering opens with provocative thoughts on the contemporary status of iconophagy (it indicates madness, it indicates paintings can inspire the [deviant] impulse to devour rather than to contemplate) and makes a distinction between those images which are not intended to be eaten and those that are (for example, gingerbread people). He notes that image-eating has been reported since the ancient world and in varied historical and cultural contexts (religious, ludic, and every-day, for example). Those people who ate images were transformed by this activity; the images consumed are qualitatively different from modern cupcakes with smiley faces rendered in icing.”