Iconophages: A History of Ingesting Images

A history of the European and Mediterranean habit of eating images, from swallowed frescoes and icons to stamped eucharistic wafers and sculpted marzipan figures.

Koering follows iconophagy from ancient Egypt through the twentieth century and asks what religious, therapeutic and symbolic work people expected an ingested image to do. He draws on art history, anthropology, philosophy and the history of the body and the senses. The book runs to 480 pages with 120 black-and-white illustrations and was translated from the French by Nicholas Huckle.

Koering is professor of early modern art history at the University of Fribourg. His earlier books include Le Prince en représentation, on the decoration of the ducal palace at Mantua, and Caravage, juste un détail. Zone Books published Iconophages in 2024, and it was named a New York Times Best Art Book of the year.