Book Review - Bible Road: Signs of Faith in the American Landscape by Sam Fentress

Captivating the American side roads, billboards, businesses, churches, and even cars, Bible Road is basically a book depicting pictures of signs of faith across America. Forward by Paul Elie and photographed by Sam Fentress, this book starts out with the introduction of how this was created. In the start, the author tells a story about the beginning of the signs of faith. A Man by the name of Flannery O' Connor created a sign that read, " The life you save my be your own" and started a revolution of faith signs that is still seen across America today. The man who made the forward to this book, Paul Elie, describes how Mr. Fentress crisscrossed the forty-nine states, photographing every sign he deemed religious and a sign of faith. As you look at the pictures, you can clearly understand that the author of these faith signs are clearly sending you as the reader a message of either what happens if you don't believe, or states how you should believe.

The types of signs

These pictures depict three types of signs:

1.Signs that you have to read as you drive, whether on a regular sign or on tires, (my personal favorite). These are the type of signs that you have to read-as-you-drive, getting the whole message at the end of the last sign. Some of these types of signs have words that are either taken straight from the bible, or made into a message of faith. Mr. Fentress shot all the signs for a single message to make reading the message easier.

2. Marquee signs are the type that are usually professionally made for a business, (except for the marquee built on the front of the house on page 99). This "theater-type" option for a sign is seen more often, usually built with lights in the background, or having lights for the words themselves. Sometimes the words are even wrote in neon.

3. Handmade signs are generally the faith signs you would find in rural areas, as well as on the sides of cars and messages wrote onto objects, such as the famous sign, "Jesus saves" painted on the side of a mailbox. Some signs were even nailed on trees.

Mr. Fentress captured the pictures in their true form, and the publishers done a great job defining the pictures, coming out from this book in a beauty that's like you are actually looking at the sign live. The pictures are either black and white or color.

Description

In every picture, the author depicts where the location Mr. Fentress seen the picture and the year the picture was taken. Some pictures go as far back as the 70's, while others are as modern as the 21st-century. This depicts the year the picture was taken only, the dates don't describe the year the faith sign was actually made. Most creators of these signs were probably anonymous anyway. As you look at the pictures, some are so weather-beaten, you can barely read the signs.

Pictures that made my best list

My all-time favorite in this book is located on page 113. This describes what God is like and uses commercial phrases to compare god to, like "God is like Coke...he's the real thing" . One of the more interesting pictures in this book is located on page 99. These series of pictures actually shows someone's house, and how they use it for a marquee. The funniest one is located on the back of the book, showing creativity in one's mind by taking a street sign of a cross sign and creating the Cross on the symbols back. The most creative one is located on page 45. This is also the same one that captivated me the most, showing a story that Jesus is knocking on a heart, with the words, "Let me in" on top of the scenery.

Bible Road, Signs of Faith in the American Landscape Is one of the best books for this type of topic, showing America the true sense of man using the sides of the road as a pulpit. definitely one of the best photographs you could see in a book and a book I would personally recommend for all to read and look.