About this item

"There's an inspiring and wacky solemnity in these organizations - high values reinforced through pageantry and performance in an ecumenical social setting - which deep down must also have been a whole lot of fun. Now it's as if that foundational Other America, that underpinning of the America we know, has gradually eroded, and here we remain, living in a world that is a mere shell, a movie set, of the world that made our world manifest, that brought it into being, and all we have left are these perplexing masks, banners, and costumes to puzzle over." - David Byrne, from the forewordFeaturing more than two hundred outstanding objects gathered from private and public collections, As Above, So Below provides the first comprehensive survey of the rich vein of art created during the "golden age" of the American fraternal society.