Z as in Zebra

In college, I took a class called “Experimental Bookmaking.” One of our assignments was to create a book with multiple folds in a single sheet. About that same time, I had been studying the art of illuminated manuscripts and gold foiling and I was particularly drawn to the Book of Kells. In that manuscript was a particular work of art involving the Chi Rho. Being a relatively new follower of Christ, I wanted to create a work of art that would be not only beautiful, but also reminiscent of the ancient manuscripts that held volumes of Scripture.

For the covers, I used a color photocopy of the Chi Rho page from the Book of Kells (from my art history book, NOT the original!):

I chose a fibrous paper for my substrate and used xeroxed blurbs of text and a colorless blender (a type of clear marker) to transfer Scripture verses onto the paper. This transfer method causes the end result to look somewhat stamped and aged:

I chose Scriptures that were particularly important to me during this time in my life:

Here is the final work, unfolded to reveal all pages:

To mimic the gold stamping of the original Chi Rho, I used an adhesive/foil method to “illuminate” the first character of each verse.

Several years have passed since I last experimented with foil stamping like this. I like the oomph the technique added to my Chi Rho book, and I’m thinking it may be time to experiment again…