ATENEO de Manila University (ADMU) and De La Salle University (DLSU) have been long-time basketball rivals. But the universities set aside their rivalry and came together through a book.

President of ADMU, Fr. Jose Ramon “Jett” Villarin, S.J. launched Siya Nga! Reflections with Art, published by the De La Salle University Publishing House.

Edited by David Jonathan Bayot, the book contains 52 reflections on terms the author and editor deemed significant to those who practice the Christian faith.

“I hope that we recover the power of words. Some of those lines might take hours. I say this because words have become cheap,” Fr. Villarin said in a speech during the book launch in DLSU on Jan. 28.

“I hope that we can help, especially the young people, to not be so terrorized and traumatized with words, and recover again the beauty and the power of words,” he added.

The words are accompanied by art works which support the reflections.

The book’s cover features Passage (2017), an oil painting by Betsy Westendorp. Each page contains words — “Incarnation,” “Trinity,” “Word,” “Freedom,” and “Christmas” are just some of them — which are accompanied by the author’s reflections and represented by artworks by Filipino artists such National Artists for Visual Arts Benedicto “BenCab” Cabrera and Arturo Luz.

“I envision the book to be one that contains images of artwork by a broad range of Filipino artists: from the canonical ones including the National Artists to the younger voices in the Philippine art scene. In so doing, the book seeks to foreground the artistic representations of the Filipinos and the range of the representations,” the book’s editor, Mr. Bayot was quoted as saying in a press release.

For inquiries about the book, e-mail De La Salle University Publishing House at dlsupublishinghouse@dlsu.edu.ph — MAPS

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