The Bible is often referred to as the word of God. In reality, it’s significantly longer: around 775,000 words spread across 66 different books, when all is said and done. How do you distill the word of God down into a single cover, then? If you’re Joseph Novak, you don’t: you create a minimalist cover interpreting each and every one of the Bible’s many books.

A Presbyterian pastor who moonlights as a graphic designer, Novak describes his Minimum Bible as a “visual diving board” into the text of the Old and New Testament. Composed of 66 minimalist posters, the project is Novak’s attempt to distill each book of the Bible into a single symbolic design.





Novak wants his posters to encourage people to think more deeply about the Bible.

For each book, Novak’s designs take one of two different tacks. Many of his posters broadly represent plot: the Book of Lamentations, for example, shows the destruction of Jerusalem reflecting in the pupil of an eye. Likewise, Jonah‘s design shows the silhouette of a subaqueous leviathan with a man in his belly.

Others are harder to figure out, since they are obviously symbolic interpretations of the Bible. The Book of Haggai‘s poster appears almost like a fractal, which could represent the Babylonian prophet’s urgent message to rebuild the Jewish temple, or the author’s own fractured writing style.

This isn’t by accident. Novak wants his posters to encourage people to think more deeply about the Bible. Consequently, his designs tend to encourage multiple interpretations.