Mary Bruno admits to being more-than-a-little trepidatious when she was first approached about creating a scroll of The Rule of Saint Benedict.
The request came in 2019.
Richard Bresnahan ’76 – the founder and director of The Saint John’s Pottery and the artist who created the sculpture that became the first permanent installation in the Jon Hassler Sculpture Garden on the grounds of Saint John’s Abbey and University in Collegeville – contacted Bruno, the acclaimed letterpress printer and owner of Bruno Press in St. Joseph.
He wanted her to create a handmade scroll that could be placed in the center of the sculpture, entitled Kura: Prophetic Messenger. The word “Kura” comes from the Japanese term for storehouse, which was historically used to protect food supplies for future use.
At the center of the round, stainless steel Kura, Bresnahan wanted a handmade scroll of the Rule of St. Benedict to be held in a ceramic scroll jar he created. Surrounding it would be ceramic vessels holding 178 seed jars made by Bresnahan and fired in the 2019 firing of The Saint John’s Pottery’s Johanna Kiln.
The seed jars contain heirloom corn, beans and squash seeds for use by future generations. The idea was that the seeds and scroll would bring together the historic stewards of the land where the Kura was placed.
“When Richard calls, I don’t hesitate to say yes without even having an idea of what I’m agreeing to,” Bruno said. “This definitely was a project way outside my comfort zone. I mean, who even makes scrolls anymore?
“I didn’t know what it entailed. I didn’t know if Richard would be really involved in a commission like this and micromanage. But he said, ‘You be you.’ Which was kind of terrifying at first to know you had a completely blank slate.”
Bresnahan did say he wanted the scroll to highlight the Central Minnesota community, and the work and activities of the sisters of Saint Benedict’s Monastery. So Bruno began her research, drawing on the information and advice provided by the sisters she consulted with.
“They were so great to sit down with me and give me their best Cliff Notes,” she said. “The text (of The Rule of Saint Benedict) can be hard to understand and comprehend. But hearing them talk about it made it so much easier.
“This is a text they’ve dedicated their lives to. So speaking with them helped a lot.”
Over the course of a year, Bruno and her team – including local artisan Jeff Thompson, who created a display stand made from repurposed redwood – put the project together. The 36-foot-long scroll features 90 pages of text and over 18 hand-carved linoleum images highlighting Minnesota flora and fauna, landscapes, local artists, printers, potters and the Benedictine nuns and their work in the community.
The sculpture was installed in the summer of 2020, and was dedicated and blessed in October 2021. A copy of the scroll was placed inside, but Bruno made six copies in all, and she wanted to bring the work to a wider audience.
So she decided to take it on the road, showcasing it first at a Benedictine conference at a monastery in Alabama, then at places like a print conference in northern Wisconsin and at a public library in Cheyenne, Wyoming.
She raised funds to commission a portable display created by the Saint John’s Abbey Woodworking team that she can transport in the back of her Subaru.
“I just felt like I wasn’t done with it yet,” she said. “I’ve never created anything this big or this epic before, and I didn’t want to pack it up in a ceramic case and have it sit in the back of my garage. I wanted it to be seen.”
Now, she’s bringing the scroll back home to be displayed where it all began. It will be displayed in an exhibition in the Escher Lobby of the Benedicta Arts Center at CSB, beginning with an opening reception from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday (Oct. 17).
The display will run through early December.
“Of course it’s really special to be able to display it here and have it be seen by the people of Central Minnesota,” Bruno said. “I’m very excited to have the sisters to whom it’s dedicated get the chance to view it, but also my peers in the community, students here and other people who may not have known it existed before.”
Bruno said the ultimate goal is to find a buyer who would display or archive the scroll permanently.
“It was a project so far outside of what I typically do, and it was a beautiful collaboration with a lot of different people,” she said. “I want the work to continue to be seen.”
Photo credit: Schadow Creative
Photo credit: Peter Lee