A queer woman raised Catholic, S. Billie Mandle has long had a complex relationship to the Church. Reconciliation was made over 10 years in small towns and large cities across the United States using a large format camera and available light. The result is more metaphorical than typological. Painterly and surprisingly personal, these images record layers of time and dedication to an act of ritualistic self-forgiveness. They exude presence and are heavy with wear of use, their form and mark seem to dictate our suposed posture. As the subject they depict these photographs are part confession, part reconciliation.

Stunning plates of confessionals are accompanied by illusive text: red-on-red ink on paper. This choice adds a strange sense of tension and desire to the experience- we have to work a little to make out the words, like leaning into hear a secret. The book is bound by a luxurious golden linen, recalling perhaps the texture of a privacy curtain or partitioner bench. Included text by Dorothy Day and Kirstin Valdez Quade.

The book received press when released, including a readworthy feature in Lenscratch.