Kay Turner, Beautiful Necessity, The art and meaning of women’s altars. London and New York: Thames & Hudson, 1999.

“Another artist, Holly Crawford, answers Wells through her creation of a multimedia altar-space, evolving since 1993, called Offerings. In various formats, including a physical installation, e-mail and a website, she invites people from around the world to respond to her request for an offering: ‘People have offered a part of themselves….I have asked for offerings from people diverse in occupation, income, geographical location, age, race, religion, and sex….The time, place, and part of the content are always evolving…transformed by the interactions and additions.’ In an overwhelming response to her project, she has received hundreds of letters, objects, and ether-messages. Crawford’s multi-media approach suggests that one possible future for altar-making is incipient in the current craze for personal websites. Or perhaps, soon the home altar will find a ‘second home’ available anywhere, anytime, encoded in pocket-size computer.”—pages 162-163.

“No matter what form the altar of the future takes, women will no doubt always have their particular reasons for keeping the tradition. In the opening pages of this book I suggested that there might be a connection among all women who in the past have kept or now kept the tradition of a home altar. That connection is, I think, a real one.”—page 165