Religion has always been a bit of a mystery to me, and this volume is no exception. A first edition from 1967, ‘People of the Bible’ is a biblical encyclopedia with (as the end flap points out) ’77 illustrations in full-colour and 154 in black-and-white’. The reason i find this book hard to understand is because the illustrations are incredible, but the illustrator, Wrigley, seems to be a non-entity these days…

I love the idea that Wrigley both designed and illustrated the text, and I really think it shows, as there is a real cohesion to the book – everything flows, the small vignettes, the colour illustrations, the images bleeding off the page. I get the sense that this would have been beautiful as an animation or computer game as the bleeds really give a sense of movement and direction to each spread and the turn of the page.

The inner margins are set a little tightly, but are compensated for by wide outer margins that accommodate illustrations and captions. I also quite like the chapter headers in sans serif caps above a heavy rule, accompanied by a section of scripture hanging below, justified and aligned to the right, also in a bold sans serif typeface. However, the relationship between this group and the main body text, with inset quotes and drop caps, all serif, is a little jarring and adds to the full and busy quality of the spreads, perhaps unnecessarily.

There are many illustrations, falling mainly into a few categories – large colour illustrations, large grayscale illustrations, large  pen and ink  drawings, and the same range of media as vignettes. I just love the secondary colour palette combined with the strong textural elements because they give a sense of sumptuous visual richness. Wrigley also reference egyptian art and greek vases in his extensive use of profiles and silhouettes which not only adds depth visually, but also in historical and cultural context. It makes me happy. A note also on the distinctive hatching, which could be described as a basket weave, sometimes describing form – clouds, fabric folds, mountains, other times it is decorative, supporting a figure or scene. This technique provides continuity across the different media and sizes which is satisfying.

So, a very talented artist and designer, fairly prolific yet totally unknown… I’d love to learn more about this mysterious artist…

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While trying to research the elusive Wrigley, I came across the cover for another book he designed and illustrated… ‘What Became of the Maori?’ with a less than accurate moko and face tattoo… so for all his brilliance, even he didn’t quite get it right all the time…