The majority of artworks I have collected during the past ten years deal with sacred stories of the Judeo-Christian tradition mostly found in the Bible. It seems appropriate, then, to start my survey of artists and artworks in the Sacred Art Pilgrim collection with the embossed collagraph print from Massachusetts Artist Sandra Bowden, In the Beginning Was the Word. Bowden is not only a gifted printmaker and painter but a fellow art collector, exhibition organizer, and key activist on the American sacred art scene. The richly textured central panel of this print, inscribed with the Hebrew text of the Creation narrative from the first chapter of Genesis, is framed in a white margin embossed with the Greek words of the Prologue to the Gospel of John. God brings the world into being with a spoken word in the Hebrew Scriptures. The Word becomes flesh and dwells among us in the person of Christ in the the New Testament. This text art piece about sacred beginnings can be found on the Bowden biosketch page in the Sacred Artists section. (John Kohan)