Artist Books Category
The Guild is keen to see more Artist Books in the competition, not judged in with the traditional binding but in a separate group of entries which will be commented on by a Queensland Artist Books maker, Lee Bratt, and which will each receive comments and a small award. The Artist Books should use the supplied text as the basis for their work, but interpretations, technique and materials will all be up to you. These do not have to use any traditional techniques but might be informed by them, or re-interpreted.
Lee Bratt is an awarded (more detail) artist book-maker and former member of the Canberra Guild of Craft Bookbinders. A short biography, with some links, is below.
The criteria will only be:
- use of the text (War of the Worlds), formatted or re-created as you wish;
- a title on the outside in some form;
- a box can be supplied but would not be required, though it may be assessed as part of the whole work.
Entry Form - 2025 McNicol Dean Comp Artist Form
Judge: Lee Bratt
Some Notes from Lee:
In 2016 I did a weekend workshop conducted by the Canberra Guild, this was the first time I made a book successfully, not an artists’ book, one with blank pages, book cloth covers and stitched traditionally. From there I started to learn other ways to bind, learnt the important rules and then I discovered artists’ books. Books that contained my work not blank pages, books with different formats, folded differently, no stitching, covers not required, I could do whatever I liked within certain rules, paper grain being an example.
I have bound pre-printed text for exhibitions many years ago but not as artists’ books, at the time I did not consider doing anything else except binding the text, the covers and boxes were where I displayed my style. The story would be different today.
How do you turn pre-printed text into an artists’ book? Only you can decide, what can you do with a text block other than stitching, does the story being told by the author need to be preserved or maybe there is a way to keep the text pristine, not bound but presented differently.
If you use Instagram, search for labratt9. I have started posting images of my books.
And below are 2 websites with artists’ book that you may find interesting.
Tim Ely: https://aplanetarycollage.com/collecting-timothy-elys-work-2/
Uses images over text in this series of books.
Shanna Leino: https://www.shannaleino.com/book-work-gallery-1
Interesting formats and covers that are out of the ordinary.