Jérémie Koering, Les Iconophages. Une histoire de l’ingestion des images, Arles: Actes Sud, collection Les Apparences, 2021, 348 p.

Abstract

Certain somewhat miscreant Boeotians will be quick to declare anathema: how could we not cast into some circle – of some hell, of some library, somewhere between the iconophiles and the iconodules – the iconophages, so much their relationship with images defies comprehension. Drinking water spilt on a stele, licking a statuette, scraping a fresco to make balms, crushing a holy image to use as a potion, chewing an engraving, or simply swallowing the diluted ashes of ancestors: such are these anomalies of the senses. At best, critics will greet these oral urges, which oscillate between high piety and low madness, with perplexity. Rest assured, Les Iconophages is not a stylistic exercise, a simple plaisir du texte relying on gratuitous allusions or metaphorical speculations about passionate relationships with images – the kind of frivolity that sometimes leads us to (in Romanian) a sorbi din priviri or (in French) dévorer des yeux our beloved. On the contrary, Jérémie Koering’s investigation is of the highest scientific rigour. His book meticulously traces the evolution of a phenomenon that has too long remained bereft of an overarching synthesis.