This book shows how text decoration evolved into an innovative form of Reformed visual culture after iconoclasm, and was used to transform church spaces to accommodate Reformed worship. A story of continuity throughout the Reformation appears in the pre-Reformation roots of designs and spatial arrangements of displayed texts, beyond evident and major change. The work is based on a comprehensive inventory of text panels and text paintings installed in churches throughout the Dutch provinces between ca 1575-1800. A North Sea perspective presents text decoration as a universal Protestant phenomenon, which took different forms according to the liturgical and dogmatic requirements of denominations: from English Ten Commandments boards, and catechism altarpieces in churches in the Lutheran Danish Kingdom, to Lutheran text altarpieces that showcase the presence of Calvinism in northwest Germany.

This book is the result of the author's PhD research in Art history, completed at the University of Groningen in 2021. The project was partly carried out at the church art department of the University Museum of Bergen, Norway.