Visual Communion

The Art, Architecture & Craft of the Eucharist

Book cover: Visual Communion

Extent: 240 pages

Publisher: Wiley-VCH

Subjects: Architecture, Religious Studies

Series: Arts and the Sacred

Language: English

Hardback (Forthcoming)

(October 2026)

ISBN: 9782503604701

Price: $188.00

A rich resource for understanding the art and architecture of the Eucharist and an inspiration for 21st-century Christian liturgy.


The Eucharist is, and always has been, at the heart of Christian worship. The celebration of the Eucharist, or the Communion as it is more commonly called, unfolds a drama of faith and transformation. This drama is also made tangible by the Eucharist’s visual and material setting. Drawing on recent scholarship in theology and the arts on the performance and setting of the Eucharist, this volume arises out of an innovative series of events and lectures organised by Art and Christianity in 2019. With an introduction by Professor Ben Quash, it also includes shorter illustrated texts celebrating the diversity and achievement of British artists and craftspeople in the design of liturgical objects and sacred spaces. From the Continental Reformation and recusant Catholicism, to the post-war Liturgical Movement and British contemporary art, this book seeks to highlight some of the most significant periods of modern Christian history through the lens of material culture and sacramental theology.