Word as God

Project

This project is the result of about a year's worth of work and research. I wanted to explore how visual language can provide substance, narration, and a mode of questioning to the dismantling of internal faith structures—those essential core beliefs that guide our decision-making and our perception of the world. Moreover, how can those elements of visual language critique those structures and possibly even discover alternative concepts? 

I spent 25 years guarding a rigid belief system. I ignored a world full of possibilities and even denied myself aspects of my own identity. Dismantling my belief systems has been a long process, but I have discovered an amazing sense of authenticity along the way. 

The Bible has been framed many ways throughout history. It is a book with infinite meaning and interpretations. The Bible frames its own words, the very type on the page, as God himself in John 1:1. If ancient text can seek to establish that level of authority through itself, surely, we also have the power to use communication elements to both dismantle our perception of the divine and reconstruct internal belief structures. 

This project, Word as God, is significant to me personally; something I have experienced over time, but beyond myself, it’s valuable as an analytical tool. My goal for any consumer of my work is to inspire honest and authentic inquiry—to seize the courage and vulnerability of exploring the unknown—whether in a faith-based deconstruction, or in any other personal capacity. There is value in investigation—design and language provide an effective framework to accomplish that examination. 

Space

Through personal experience, linguistic analysis, and exploration of Biblical iconography through history I visualized my findings in a series of 12 posters. An accompanying book acts partly as a cipher to the posters providing a “way in” to much of the embedded content, while also providing space for personal interpretation and exploration. The large format word SELAH painted on the wall (a Hebrew lyrical term) is an encouragement to pause and consider. A seating area below a hyper-directional speaker playing Taize monk music, enhances the ritual nature of the space, encouraging reflection and thought. The purpose of Word as God is to ask—to taste and see a different, riskier sort of goodness—with the pursuit of rich authenticity and celebration of inquiry at the heart.

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Poster Series

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Book

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Engagement