286 places of worship. 286 cardboard models as listed in Edinburgh’s Yellow Pages back in 2004. No connection to the type of religion they shelter nor placed in actual geographical order. The first thing I tried to do was to see if I could recognise any of them. And then it felt so pointless! I got caught up by the beauty of the homogeneity this artwork filled the room with; they all looked the same; churches, cathedrals, synagogues, mosques, Salvation Army halls and temples, all  so close to each other, nothing to separate them. To me, Nathan Coley’s miniatures of religious institutions belittled any sense of segregation and intolerance, bearing this up-to-the-minute meaning when our divided society – a nexus of different, rigid beliefs – seems to need it the most. Architecture traditionally mirrors society and places of worship are usually quite dominant, reflecting the power of organised religion upon people. Seeing all these buildings so small and fragile, without a trace of mysticism made me think of how YOU IMAGINE WHAT YOU DESIRE and that THERE WILL BE NO MIRACLES HERE, the artist’s illuminated texts of skepticism. The Lamp of Sacrifice at the Scottish National Gallery Of Modern Art (Modern One) couldn’t help but reminding me of Tom Robbin’s words in Skinny legs and all:  “With hammers of cant and spikes of dogma, we crucified and crucified again, trying to nail to our stationary altars the migratory light of the world.”