More than half of his results — 61 chapters of the Quran’s 114, neatly painted on paper — are on display through March 18 at the Faulconer Gallery at Grinnell College. The gallery’s associate director, Daniel Strong, first saw the project in New York, bought a few panels for the college’s permanent collection and arranged for the touring exhibition to visit Iowa.
“You can’t see something like this and say Islam is alien to American life,” he said during a lap through the gallery earlier this week. He pointed to a chapter about giving alms to the poor, which Birk illustrated with a beggar holding a sign: “Iraq vet. No job. Please help.”
“You can’t get more topical than that,” Strong said.
