VESSEL
Guild of Book Workers 2015-2017 Traveling Exhibition
The Guild of Book Workers invites all members to participate in its 2015-2017 traveling juried exhibition, Vessel. The book as vessel inspires beautiful metaphor - a craft for traveling, a container, a holder, a receiver, a transporter. Across time and culture, the vessel is at the center of many ceremonies and rites of passage. Native American cultures regarded the vessel as a portal to a sacred realm. The book as craft is our vessel to sail the high seas, to hold our dearest memories, and to indicate the pulse of life. Guild of Book Workers members are invited to interpret “vessel” as broadly or as narrowly as they wish.
ENTRY PROCESS & TIMELINE
*exact dates subject to change
| Intent to Enter: | September 1, 2014 – October 17, 2014 |
| Open Call for Entry: | January 15, 2015 – March 1, 2015 |
| Notification of Acceptance: | April 1, 2015 |
| Work Due to Receiving Venue: | May 5, 2015 |
Catalog
A full color printed catalog will be produced by GBW and made available for sale online and at the exhibition locations. The catalog will depict all 50 works, plus binding descriptions and biographical statements by each binder. You can make a donation for the production of the catalog here. Gifts of any amount will be graciously accepted and will be acknowledged in the catalog and in the signage posted at each exhibition venue. Donors of $250 and above will receive a complimentary catalog. All gifts are tax deductible, and a receipt will be provided.
SCOPE OF EXHIBIT
This exhibition will feature approximately 50 works by Guild members. Opening in the spring of 2015, the Vessel exhibition will travel to between six and nine venues across the U.S., closing in the spring of 2017. Selected works will include fine and edition bindings, artist’s books, broadsides (letterpress printing, calligraphy, and decorative paper making), and historical binding models. Works will be selected by a jury to ensure that they are of excellent quality.
ELIGIBILITY
All entrants must be members in good standing of the Guild of Book Workers at the time of submission and carry a current membership throughout the entire run of the exhibition. Member registration may accompany entry, along with entry fee. Entrants may submit a total of two works. An Intent to Enter form must be submitted online by October 17, 2014 in order to be notified of exhibitions updates and a link to the online entry form. Works will be juried from digital images. You can download the printable entry Form (PDF) or submit electronically below.
Jurors
Sarah Bryant, who operates under the name Big Jump Press, designs and produces letterpress-printed artist’s books in editions ranging in size from ten to one hundred copies. Her work can be found in dozens of collections including The Yale Arts Library, The Houghton Library at Harvard University, The New York Public Library and The Darling Bio-medical Library at UCLA. Sarah received her MFA from the University of Alabama MFA in the Book Arts Program in 2008. She currently lives and teaches in the UK.
Timothy Ely earned his MFA in Design in 1975. Following graduate school Ely began a self-motivated study of bookbinding. He began to fabricate the work he is known for today, a fusion of largely English style binding techniques with visionary drawings of an unknowable future. He has received numerous awards. With an NEA grant [1982] he traveled to Japan, Italy and England studying bookbinding and papermaking. Following this he moved to New York where he established a studio and also taught at the Center for Book Arts. During this decade in New York, he traveled to Europe, Central America and Scandinavia lecturing, exhibiting and teaching. He has had numerous solos exhibitions and has participated in many group exhibitions. His two most recent exhibitions were at the Jundt Museum of Art and The Northwest Museum of Art and Culture. His work is collected planet wide and is held in public, private and secret collections. He currently lives in Eastern Washington near the Colfax River. He is represented by Ursus Books in New York.
Deborah Howe has been involved in the field of book conservation and book arts for twenty plus years. Currently she is the Collections Conservator at Dartmouth College Library in Hanover, New Hampshire, where she also teaches book arts classes in the Library’s Book Arts Workshop. Previously, she headed the conservation lab at Northwestern University Library in Evanston Illinois. As a student in bookbinding she studied fine binding in France at the Atelier d’Arts Appliques du Vesinet under the guidance of Sun Evard and has continued to participate in workshops to enhance her professional development. In her capacity as a teacher, she has taught classes at Columbia Center for Paper and Book, the Newberry Library and the Paper and Book Intensive. She is a long standing member of the Guild of Book Workers and is on the board of directors of the Morgan Art of Papermaking Conservatory and Educational Foundation in Cleveland, Ohio.
Exhibition Dates and Venues
November 30, 2015 - January 16, 2016
Kellogg Gallery
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
Greater Los Angeles Area
April 1, 2016 - July 1, 2016
Cary Graphic Arts Collection
Rochester Institute of Technology
Rochester, New York
July 15, 2016 - September 15, 2016
North Bennet Street School
Boston, Massachusetts