Join us in celebrating the culminating exhibition of new work by the MCBA/Jerome Foundation Book Arts Fellowship Series XI artists on Friday, November 2, 2012. Visit our Exhibitions page for more information!
Minnesota Center for Book Arts (MCBA) and the Jerome Foundation are pleased to announce the recipients of Series XI of the MCBA / Jerome Book Arts Fellowships:
Bill Cottman, photographer
Cottman’s proposal involves an investigation of the creative lives and work of four influential artists active in the period from 1923 to 1960: writer Langston Hughes, painter Romare Bearden, photographer Roy DeCarava and musician John Coltrane. Searching for evidence of collaboration and connections between these artists, Cottman will create prints, and, later, a book of visual/verbal signs (“logographics”) depicting these connections.
Will Dinski, cartoonist
Interested in combining the craft approach of letterpress with the art of the comic book, Dinski plans to create an artist’s book on handmade paper that will contrast the stability of print with the ephemerality of the digital. The book will consist of URL addresses for 24 one-page online comics. As the web pages expire or are moved, the book will remain as a trace of lost digital content.
Amanda Lovelee, video and performance artist
Lovelee’s proposed work is a sculptural book and video project inspired by a recent artist residency in China. Exploring ideas of isolation, entrapment, and freedom of speech, Lovelee will create a large-scale accordion book which explores the experience of making art in China. She will also lead space-making workshops in which participants make accordion books that explore the contrasts of internal/external, dreams/reality, and freedom/entrapment.
Cathy Ryan, book artist and printmaker
Deepening an exploration of place and landscape from several earlier bookworks, Ryan’s proposed project is a series of screenprints of abstract compositions depicting land use from aerial or otherwise perspective-amplified views. Combined with letterpress-printed texts and other supplemental materials in handmade boxes, these images will form a subjective atlas of the United States.
Todd Thyberg, graphic designer and printer, proprietor of Angel Bomb Design
Thyberg plans to create a letterpress graphic novel about time travel. Titled The Airship, this book tells the story of a Victorian-era father and son who are separated when the son is hurled forward in time from their dirigible airship. Using smart phone-compatible QC codes to connect the book to web-based story enhancements, The Airship will make narrative use of digital and traditional book formats.
Three jurors, reflecting diverse perspectives and considerable expertise, reviewed 35 applications and selected the five recipients. Jurors were: Ian Stade, Special Collections librarian for the Hennepin County Library system; Jana Pullman, bookbinder, conservator and proprietor of Western Slope Bindery; and Amanda Degener, sculptor, papermaker, and co-proprietor of Cave Paper handmade paper mill. With generous funding from the Jerome Foundation and technical guidance from MCBA staff and master artists, the Fellowship recipients will develop their independent projects throughout the coming year. The program will culminate in a group exhibition at MCBA, opening in November 2012.
Since 1985 the Jerome Foundation has helped artists push the boundaries of contemporary book arts by supporting the creation of new book works. Under the previous ten series of fellowships, Minnesota artists of diverse disciplines – including printers, papermakers, binders, painters, sculptors, poets, photographers, essayists and others – have created projects ranging from exquisitely crafted fine press volumes to documented performances to one-of-a-kind installations that "break the bindings" and redefine conventional notions of book form and content.
If you have any questions about the fellowships or the application process, please contact Jeff Rathermel, MCBA Executive Director, by phone at 612.215.2525 or by email at jrathermel@mnbookarts.org.
