The Legacy of Bible Covers: Reimagining Sacred Art with a Devotional Overlay
The cover of the Lindau Gospels. Credit Graham S. Haber, via The Morgan Library & Museum
Imagine a medieval Bible, not only bound in leather but clothed in silk, veiled with embroidery, or adorned in gold and jewels. For centuries, sacred texts weren’t just read — they were dressed. The instinct to clothe the Word in beauty runs deep, crossing cultures and centuries, and it’s that same instinct I’ve tried to carry forward in my own work.
What Were Bible Covers, Really?
When most people hear “Bible cover” today, they think of a slip-on case — something practical, zippered, maybe leather, maybe fabric, designed to protect a Bible on the go. But historically, artistic Bible covers meant something far more elaborate and symbolic.
In the Middle Ages, some of the most treasured Gospel books were bound with treasure bindings — heavy slabs of wood covered in gold or silver, studded with jewels and ivory. Others were wrapped in chemise bindings — long swaths of silk or velvet that extended beyond the boards, draping the book in fabric. In churches, Bibles and prayer books were sometimes laid beneath embroidered cloths or palls, serving as veils to honor their sanctity.
These coverings served two purposes. They protected texts that were fragile and precious, yes — but more importantly, they marked the books as holy. To cover Scripture was to set it apart, to acknowledge in a physical way that this book was unlike any other.
The act of covering sacred writings wasn’t excess ornamentation. It was devotion made visible. Just as altars are vested before worship or clergy are clothed in liturgical garments, the Bible too was given its own vestments. These coverings created presence. They gave the Word a kind of dignity, reminding those who approached it that they weren’t handling ordinary pages but something to be revered.
Reimagining Tradition
Devotional Overlay.
I’m not a medieval monk or a Renaissance embroiderer, but the impulse that gave rise to those coverings still speaks to me. That’s why I’ve created what I call Devotional Overlays — painted and gold-leafed canvases designed not to bind a Bible or zip around it, but to rest upon it. These are not cases or slip-ons. They are works of art, made to distinguish Scripture in the home or sacred space — a contemporary vestment for the Word.
Because “Bible cover” today suggests something purely practical, I chose the name Devotional Overlay to make clear that my work derives from the ancient instinct: to cloak what is sacred in beauty. Draping silk, stitching embroidery, laying gold upon sacred texts — these coverings reminded generations that Scripture is not only to be read, but to be revered. My overlays are my way of participating in that same continuum.
If you’d like to see how I’ve reimagined this tradition in my own studio practice, explore my contemporary Devotional Overlays here.
