The Korean Church Told Through Food

Fall 2022
Dimensions: 4.75x10.5 in
Printed at the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts.
Binding: Perfect
Typefaces: Le Monde Journal Std, Sandoll Myeongjo Neo
Overseen by Becca Leffel Koren.

Remembering my experience growing up in the church, one of the most poignant elements was the food. Every week, members of the congregation made one of six dishes, cycling through them for all the years I attended, from 2001 to 2019. 

Modeled after the church bulletin, this book mirrors both a menu and my monotonous weekly routine. The book block features vellum and paper pages, to further express the repetitive lunches, broken up by my exasperated reactions. Although Korean and English are mixed throughout the book, it’s okay if you can’t understand, because I didn’t growing up, either.

As a Korean American, one of the biggest connections I have to my culture is food—giving reason to why I looked most forward to lunch, something I didn’t necessarily need the skill of language for. The covers also show this, as when I couldn’t understand the sermons, I liked to doodle and daydream. 

This book was printed, bound, and designed by me.