Exhibition catalogue / monograph published in conjunction with show organized by Lynne Cooke, Dia Art Foundation, and presented at The Hispanic Society of America, New York, September 20, 2007 – April 6, 2008. Traveled to Los Angeles County Museum of Art, September 4, 2008 – January 4, 2009; and National Portrait Gallery, London, 2009. "Mexico City–based artist Francis Alÿs (b. 1959) assembled a group of paintings depicting Saint Fabiola, a 4th-century saint who gave up all earthly possessions and devoted herself to the practice of Christian asceticism. All of the pictures in the collection are based on an original work—now lost—by the 19th-century French artist Jean-Jacques Henner. Alÿs''s collection of Fabiola portraits, numbering in the hundreds and painted by amateurs and professionals alike, is the focus of this intriguing book. Not only does it examine the artist''s exploration of collecting practices, but the publication also offers an unusual window into aesthetic, sociological, and anthropological values of the past century. In addition to cataloguing each of the Fabiola works, the book includes Saint Jerome''s eulogy for Fabiola (the primary source for Fabiola''s biography), followed by an interpretive text on evolving hagiographies and saints'' vitae, an analysis of the role of iconographic imagery in the practice of Catholicism, and art historical essays that focus on Alÿs''s practice." -- publisher''s statement. Includes texts by Stephen Bann, David Morgan, Susan Laningham, Stephen Bann, Martha Buskirk, Lynne Cooke, and Saint Jerome. Each of the 300+ works within the exhibition is fully documented by Francesca Esmay, conservator, Dia Art Foundation, with dimension, date, media, condition, provenance, and additional notes.