Drawn to the Word: The Bible and Graphic Design by Amanda Dillon

Abstract

Reviewed by: Drawn to the Word: The Bible and Graphic Design by Amanda Dillon Mark Jonah amanda dillon, Drawn to the Word: The Bible and Graphic Design (Bible and Its Reception 4; Atlanta: SBL Press, 2021). Pp. xv + 263. Paper $49. As the fourth publication in the SBL series The Bible and Its Reception, Drawn to the Word provides an introduction, rationale, and case studies to explain how meaning is both [End Page 156] crafted and perceived in contemporary graphic design. Generally, Dillon is seeking to contribute to the academic community’s debate on the efficacy and applicability of visual art, specifically graphic design, and biblical reception in the arena of biblical studies. Specifically, the challenge D. accepts is to help the reader, who may not be familiar with the means and modes of artistry, understand how art communicates. Precisely limiting the study to graphic design is key in her specific pursuit. “One of the primary impulses of graphic design that distinguishes it from other visual art forms is its communicative function over personal self-expressive concerns. Graphic design is alway explicitly oriented toward the viewer with the intention and desire to impart meaning” (p. 3). The question of how content is communicated with graphic design and how the meaning is comprehended by the viewer is modeled in the first chapter with a snapshot of the method D. introduces and explains in more detail throughout the book. The concern addressed is the subjective nature of art, which seemingly makes it an imprecise area for a definitive, interpretive methodology and is the reason why it is a concern in the biblical studies community. Additionally, relying on the receptivity of the intended viewer for meaning appears tenuous. The second and third chapters establish the placement of this graphic design analysis in the areas of hermeneutics and semiotics and provide the core rationale of scholarly engagement. D. links the study of biblical reception history within hermeneutics to the meaning-making capabilities explored and explained by semiotics. In chap. 2, D. highlights the difficulty of biblical reception history gaining academic acceptance among the longstanding proponents of the historical-critical method. The rationale D. provides details the challenges of postmodernism and globalization to the field of visual studies in the overarching change from the form of written word to the form of image. She traces the philosophic foundations of reception study beginning with textual considerations and then demonstrating how visual studies carry on in a similar direction. An overview of commentaries, dictionaries, and online publications, points to growth, study, and acceptance of biblical reception in the academic arena. Chapter 3 presents semiotics as the methodological approach for visual study in reception of the Bible. Drawing from Gunther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen (Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design [New York: Routledge, 2006]), D. includes a view of social semiotics. Connecting semiotics and linguistics, D. continues to highlight the paths of studying meaning. D. shows how the terms of semiotics are used to explain graphic design’s creation, manufacture, and meaning. That images express meaning is not argued, but a way to explain how they express meaning is considered. The methodology D. proposes is based on understanding the relationship between language and other forms of communication. D. explains her application of the terms “ideational,” “interpersonal,” and “textual” to graphic design and how they communicate. “Semiotic resource” defined as “the actions, materials and artifacts we use for communicative purposes” (p. 66), completes the methodology of meaning that D. then applies as an interpretive method to two selected graphic designs. The meaning and significance of the books containing the reviewed images (chap. 4) are examined because, in her opinion, these books have been overlooked in reception history. “[T]he lectionary is not only a site and conduit for the reception of the Bible but a semiotic resource in itself” (p. 83). Specifically, she uses images from the pew edition of Worship published by Evangelical Lutheran Worship and from the Sunday Missal of the Roman Catholic Church. D. places a particular emphasis on the similarity of value that a lectionary and a missal share with the Bible. Considering the commensurate significance [End Page 157] she suggests between these...