About the Brick Book of Mormon
Artist Elbe Spurling is best known for having illustrated the entire Bible in LEGO bricks, from Genesis to the book of Revelation—an epic twelve-year project in which Spurling assembled, positioned, and photographed thousands of LEGO scenes in meticulous detail—with each illustration’s accompanying text drawn straight from scripture with chapters and verses cited. The Brick Bible and The Brick Bible for Kids series of books have won over fans from across the world and have delighted folks across the spectrum of belief. Not religious herself, Spurling’s motivation for the project has been a strong belief that people ought to know and consider the contents of the Bible, whether they are believers or not.
Following up that project, Spurling deployed her formidable LEGO illustrating talents in the creation of two history-based books in The Brick Chronicle series. Then in 2015, Spurling was inspired anew to take on a project of ambitious proportions: illustrating The Book of Mormon in LEGO bricks. But whereas Spurling began The Brick Bible project having thoroughly studied the Christian scriptures, what little she knew of “Mormonism” had been casually gleaned from a visit years before to the LDS Church History Museum while passing through Salt Lake City.
So her study of the Book of Mormon began. It wasn’t long, however, before she realized that to really understand the LDS worldview, additional texts would be needed—starting with the other two unique books in the LDS scriptures, Doctrines and Covenants, and The Pearl of Great Price. But even that isn’t fully adequate, because the LDS church has always been led by a living prophet who speaks on behalf of God. Their words too are treated as scripture. And finally, there are a great many teachings and elucidations to be found throughout the teaching manuals and other official church publications which are available through the church’s official website churchofjesuschrist.org.
Immersing herself in all these readings for a six months and taking ample notes, Spurling was then prepared to spend the following six months working out an expansive but highly-organized, clear, and easy-to-read manuscript. With the full scope of the project now in view, it was clear the LEGO illustration work was likely to take several years to complete. But it seemed a worthy task, so with the the manuscript divided into twelve parts, Spurling headed into her art studio to begin work on Chapter 1, In the Beginning.
You are invited to enjoy The Brick Book of Mormon project in its as-of-yet unfinished state. Even though not all of the material is currently illustrated, the entire text of all of the chapters of the manuscript is presented here.