Bibles have for centuries sacrificed readability and beauty for tradition and economy. The most virtuous and favorable departure from this convention is arguably the Washburn College Bible. Designed by Bradbury Thompson, this bible exhibits the utmost regard for the reader. The King James text is impeccably typeset in Jan Tschichold’s transcendent Sabon.

Effortlessly readable
and a biblical first,
ragged-right lines
break at pauses in the verse.¹

Each chapter begins with an Old Master work of biblically inspired art. Curated by J. Carter Brown, paintings by Rembrandt, Raphael, Rubens, and more add unmatched richness to the scriptures. Each volume begins with a spiritually inspired abstract geometric screenprint by Josef Albers. This bible is exquisite. With typographic brilliance, art-historical significance, and immaculate balance, the Washburn College Bible is an underappreciated masterpiece.

Inspired by the Washburn College Bible, Critter designed Stations to exhibit his contemporary oil paintings of the stations of the cross. His iconic simplifications of childlike illustrations portray the seven original stations. Like the Old Master works in the Washburn bible, each station in Stations is paired with its scriptural counterpart. The volume opens with Critter’s abstract geometric homage to Josef Albers’s Introitus, the first frontispiece in the Washburn bible. Stations is typeset in Porchez’s Sabon Next, the most elegant digital revival of Tschichold’s Sabon. Like the Washburn College Bible, Stations connects crucial contemporary scriptural art with its rich visual history.

1 Critter, Bradbury Thompson’s Bible