Tuesday, March 4, 2008

The Bible Illuminated


You might recall that we wrote about St. John's Bible a while back, the deliberately anachronistic hand-made and illustrated Bible that married Medieval techniques with Modern art.  



A Swedish publisher published The Bible Illuminated in late 2007.   It is formatted like a glossy magazine, and illustrated with big black & white photos.  As you can see in the picture above, the pictures are chosen to be provocative as much as to be beautiful.  Among other photos include a man who drowned trying to enter Europe across the Mediterranean, photos from Concentration camps, as well as newly shot photos specifically for the book.  

The publisher says that his goal was "to foster under understanding about the common heritage between Christians, Muslims and Jews and to get people to think about the bigger moral questions through the ancient texts of the Bible."  He also says that he wanted to introduce the Bible to a new generation and get rid of the "old, heavy book."  

An English version is promised for the US sometime in 2009.  We'll keep you updated.

This version of the Bible certainly looks cool to me.  I love the design, and the photos look cool and thought provoking.  Imagine having this and St. John's Bible side by side in your house.  Two modern takes on the world's oldest book from very different directions.  Stunning.




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2 comments:

KC said...

jonnyflash, i'm actually working on this project now. check out the website --it's been redone for the U.S. version coming out this fall 2008. also, here's a link to a fantastic video of the visionary behind the project: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlWHAGjHUBs

Let me know what you think!

Unknown said...

we are launching next week...

illuminatedworld.com