The Canon | Accordion Book
Storytelling Across Time & Pages
As a creative project, for a Bible as Literature class, I have created an accordion-style bound book, inspired by the symmetry and reversal narrative of the book of Esther that was assigned during class. Going into this project, I explored Biblical narratives to understand concepts and stories and build a system that can resonate with the Bible. My initial plan was to touch on the topics like Genealogy, Ceremonial Worship, and Rhetorical Devices: Symbolism & Numerology, Angelic Forms and Purposes, Gospels (Canonized and Gnostic) & Betrothal Narrative, and Typology. The project scope includes the book, book cover, hand-drawn images, and text summaries aligned with the designed layout.
Unfold the Canon
This project was an experimental and explorative experience for me as a designer. The Bible and its use of both a literary and spiritual text are beautifully presented through a carefully designed accordion-bound book, which mirrors the unfolding nature of God’s redemptive plan and provides informative summaries and visual representations. Drawing from key theological and narrative themes like Genealogy, Gospels and Betrothal Narratives, Angelic Forms and Purposes, Typology, and Rhetorical Devices, my book successfully hosts all 66 canonical books. Each design choice, from the seven stones on the binding to the palm-sized dimensions, carries layered meaning rooted in biblical references. Created with both newcomers and familiar readers in mind, this project aims to make the Bible accessible, engaging, and reflective of its depth. By blending tactile experience with visual and textual storytelling, the book becomes a gateway to understanding the Bible’s narrative structure, spiritual resonance, and enduring relevance across cultures and generations.
Mockups
Project Strategy
Genealogy
In this piece, I wanted to express genealogy in a few different ways, through visual and typographic storytelling. A central reference is the inclusion of a hand-drawn illustration of Adam and Eve from the Book of Genesis, symbolizing the origin point of human lineage and echoing the foundational narratives that inform both biblical and personal ancestries. By incorporating this image, the project roots its exploration of genealogy in a universally recognized story of beginnings.
To visually support this historical depth, I selected typefaces with strong ties to typographic tradition. Ferryman, inspired by early Venetian serif forms which echo manuscript styles of the Renaissance and evokes a sense of timeworn beauty and sacred text. In contrast, Source Serif 4 offers a more modern, yet historically grounded counterpart, which is based on transitional serif models from the 18th century and provides clarity, making it ideal for longer the narratives included in the book, while still respecting traditional roots.
Ceremonial Worship
This project reflects on the theme of ceremonial worship through the book's physical size. Recognizing that dimensions carry symbolic weight, I initially sought references in the Bible for metrical measurements, hoping to root the book's scale in sacred tradition. However, my research redirected me to a different understanding of "dimensions": not as physical metrics but as spiritual realms, divine presence, and God's omnipresence. This discovery became the conceptual spark for the final form of my book. Instead of extracting measurements, I was drawn to the personal, embodied prayer ritual. The book's size, four by 6.5 inches, mirrors the approximate dimensions of the human palm, making it perfectly fitted to be held between folded hands. This physical and spiritual gesture evokes the timeless prayer ritual and the human gesture for connection with the divine. By designing the book to fit this religious gesture, the project emphasizes the meditative aspect of worship and prayer. Holding the book becomes a form of ceremony, a tactile symbol of devotion and personal spirituality. The object's scale is not arbitrary but deliberate, human-scaled, and spiritually resonant.
Angelic Forms & Purposes
This project touches on the angelic forms and purposes through imagery described in sacred texts, visualizing their spiritual presence into drawn representations. Drawing from biblical imagery, I included visions such as the burning bush and Ezekiel's vision of the "wheel within a wheel", I created illustrations that echo the otherworldly nature of angelic appearances. These forms are not decorative but reflect the angels' role as messengers, mediators, and manifestations of sacred purpose. To complement these images, I developed universal visual motifs that reflect angelic attributes more abstractly, like shining star graphics representing divine light and guidance and a pattern inspired by the six-winged seraphim. Using these elements throughout the book with correlated texts, these marks function as almost bookmarks to bring out the visuals of the texts, which will help new readers to familiarize themselves with the content. The visuals invite the viewer not just to see but to contemplate the deeper, often unseen layers of divine communication and presence.
Typology
This project uses typology by embodying the concept through the book’s accordion-style structure. Overall, the book is able to unfold over six feet in length, containing around 81 pages total. Just as a typology in Scripture reveals how earlier events foreshadow future fulfillment, the book physically unfolds God’s redemptive plan, allowing readers to experience it as a continuous, connected narrative not only through the reading but through the engaging and tactile experience of the book. This format mirrors the slow revelation of divine intent, making reading a symbolic participation in unfolding history and promise.
Gospels (Canonized and Gnostic) & Betrothal Narrative
This project incorporates both Canonized and Gnostic Gospels alongside Betrothal Narratives to deepen the understanding of biblical storytelling and symbolism. The book features 66 summaries of the canonical books, with dedicated introductory pages for the Old and New Testaments, as well as contextual sections on the Bible as a whole, the Apocrypha, and the central point of the biblical text. Within this framework, narratives such as Ruth’s grain and Esther’s crown are visually represented to highlight themes of covenant, loyalty, and divine union—central to betrothal stories and the broader gospel message. These elements work together to reflect the Bible’s layered structure and its enduring relevance across genres and traditions.
Rhetorical Devices: Symbolism & Numerology
Rhetorical devices are rooted in biblical tradition, and this project explores these ideas using numerology and symbolism as key tools to convey spiritual meanings in tangible form. Starting from the cover sleeve, my use of seven seals on the book's binding references the seven seals from the Book of Revelation, an intentional act of numerological storytelling, which I made with gold and teal wax. In the biblical context, the number seven often symbolizes completion, divine order, and spiritual perfection, which function as a tactile element of the book's design and embody the layered significance of apocalyptic prophecy and the unveiling of hidden truths. Their placement echoes the text's themes, anchoring the reader in the symbolic journey of revelation and understanding. Similarly, the project employs symbolism through color, particularly the use of bright blues throughout the book's palette. This choice was partially inspired by an episode of The Chosen, Season 2 Episode 8: Beyond Mountains, which we viewed in class, where Jesus picked a blue scarf for the sermon, which served as a visual representation for the divine, tranquil yet powerful, human yet transcendent, and which I reimaged with the use of the blue ribbon around the book. Similarly, the use of blue in this project reflects the divine glow and reflects burning blue colors. Compared to the usual representation of fire and glow using yellows and oranges, I let blue overtake the color scheme to reflect the fire that burns hotter than regular "orange" fire, which is a phenomenon often occurring with burning that appears on 2300 to 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit.