Square Halo Books

Today I am going to share with you an interview I conducted with Ned Bustard, Creative Director of Square Halo Books, Inc.

Q: First things first, please explain to me the significance of your company name.

Ned: In church art there are round halos, triangular halos and square halos. The square halo was for people who were living saints. It was our desire to publish books that would serve Christians in our day. So it seemed a good fit.

Q: How did you company get involved with making art books?

Ned: Well, it wasn't our vision when our company began, that's for sure.

We started with the goal of being a press for theological works. We wanted to create a place where folks could get published, regardless of who they were. Looking back at the history of our company, we were featuring art in our books even from our first title. And our non-art books continue to feature art like Gregory Wolfe's Intruding Upon the Timeless which contains many beautiful engravings by Barry Moser, and our most recent theological title The Beginning which had a suite of linocut prints created expressly for the project, yet also released as a separate portfolio. The artists included in that effort were myself, Chara Bauer,Tanja Butler, Matthew Clark, Tyrus Clutter, and Edward Knippers.

But we started doing books particularly about art because I wanted to read a book like, It Was Good: Making Art to the Glory of God. It didn't exist, so we made it. That book ended up featuring several New Yorkers: Tim Keller, Krystyna Sanderson, James Romaine, and Makoto Fujimura. The premise of It Was Good was that A Christian looks at the world through the eyes of one who has a restored relationship with the Creator, and receives a new vision affecting every area of life—including the creative process. I believe at that point we need to ask the question, "what does it mean to be a creative individual who is a follower of the creative God?: It Was Good sought to answer that question through a series of essays on artmaking—and with lots of full color art. Ironically, many books on the arts don't have much art in them.

Q: Mako Fujimura is involved with Redeemer in many different ways and sometimes attends services. Have you made any other books that include his work?

Ned: Yes, Mako has become a good friend. After It Was Good we worked with James Romaine to make the book Objects of Grace: Conversations on Creativity and Faith. That was a collection of conversations with some of today's most intriguing artists—Sandra Bowden, Dan Callis, Mary McCleary, John Silvis, Edward Knippers, Erica Downer, Albert Pedulla, Tim Rollins and K.O.S., Joel Sheesley and Makoto Fujimura. In addition to the interviews it also featured a discussion with Mako on how September 11th impacted him and the art community. After that book came out we published Faith and Vision: Twenty-Five Years of Chrisitans in the Visual Arts, which featured Mako's work, and then just recently we had the pleasure of publishing Rouault-Fujimura: Soliloquies which is a small book that pairs Mako's work with that of Georges Rouault.

Q: What book projects do you have in the works?

Ned: We have a couple of non-art books coming down the pike, but the next title to come out will probably be the "sequel" to It Was Good— It Was Good: Making Music to the Glory of God. That project includes (among others) Redeemers own, Tom Jennings. We don't have a release date for that yet, but if folks are interested in that or in any of our other books, they can visit our website, or follow our blog, or "like" our Facebook page.

Q: Thank you for sharing your love of God and art by creating Square Halo Books. You have also given us some great Christmas gift ideas. We look forward to reading It Was Good: Making Music to the Glory of God.

--Maria