The 2024 MCBA Prize
Established in 2009, the MCBA Prize is an international artist’s book award that honors excellence in new work from across the sweeping spectrum of book art. This year, we received 150 submissions from 16 countries, from Italy to India. Juror Yuka Petz selected 20 semi-finalists and 5 finalists, whose work is viewable in person in our Main Gallery.
One winner receives a $2,000 cash prize and four finalists receive a $500 cash prize. Learn more about the finalist and semi-finalist work below. All submissions from the 2024 MCBA Prize, as well as past years, are accessible to explore on our MCBA Prize site.
Free and open to the public
WhereMCBA Main Gallery
WhenAugust 17, 2024–October 12, 2024
virtual prize revealWednesday, September 18; 6–7:30pm
ReceptionFriday, September 27; 6–8pm
meet the winner & finalists
2024 MCBA Prize Winner
Radha Pandey, Norway
Flora of Mughal India,
2024
Letterpress printing, miniature painting, wood engraving, polymer plates, linoleum, paper cutting, foil stamping,
10” x 6.5” x 0.75″ closed approx.
Artist Statement
Flora of Mughal India or لستان ھند (Gulistaan-e-Hind) explores the shift in perception of nature and its representation in illuminated manuscripts in India during a time of cultural and political change (1500–1700), and how that consequently changed the art of the book and the visual representation of nature on the Indian subcontinent. A collaboration between Pandey and master craftspeople in India, this book combines letterpress printing, miniature painting, paper cutting, and hand-illustrated elements."
2024 MCBA Prize finalist
Alisa Banks, Dallas, TX
History of a People, 2023
Wood, hair, indigo, scent, paper, 8” dia. X 9.5”
Artist Statement
History of a People represents my ongoing investigations of ceremony, ritual, and tradition in African American culture and the African diaspora using material culture as a conceptual point of departure in creating original works of art. My particular interest is in women’s contributions to the formation of culture. Materials such as cloth, hair, and plants, and craft techniques are often incorporated to build layers of symbolism within the work. I believe that the concept of book is fluid in that there are many ways to “read,” and “reading” can incorporate all senses."
2024 MCBA Prize finalist
Anne Covell, La Mesa, CA
In the Dark, 2024
Waxed black pigmented overbeaten abaca handmade and hand-cut by the artist, quarter sawn oak boards, suede covering, and brass embellishments, 14 x 4.25 x 1.75 inches (closed, including extension)
Artist Statement
In the Dark explores the complexities of grief and reconciliation when justice remains out of view. Using redactions from the Mueller Report as a placeholder for the ongoing miscarriage of justice in American politics, these pages hold space to ponder what information has been lost or may never be known. They are a place to turn inward, sit with grief, feel the weight of one’s own anger, and in time contemplate a way forward.
2024 MCBA Prize finalist
thad higa,
Oakland, CA
This Land Is My Land, 2024
Digital print on paper, in book boards, coptic stitch and shipping tape,
8.5 x 5.5 in closed
Artist Statement
This Land Is My Land is a fictionalized narrative from the imagined headspace of current-day, online white supremacists, nationalists, and their sympathizers. It is an effort to see and know the many activities and contradictions of hatred, bias, and cynicism rooted in sloganized and weaponized language. It is an attempt to unveil the relationships between white supremacy, American exceptionalism, and capitalist proprietary themes of shopping malls, graveyards, land trusts, and development. But at its core, it is an exhibition of subterranean reading comprehension and the crux of urgent types of legibility in the oversaturated digital age."
2024 MCBA Prize finalist
Veronika Schäpers, Karlsruhe, Germany
2^11 // grain morning raccoon peace job barrel hamster nature exercise unable fire crush image patrol pony aerobic key pet ship squeeze bargain move again ability, 2023
Letterpress printing of polymer plates on Toshabangenshi ganpi paper, Bicchu ganpi paper and M41 mitsumata paper. Binding made from Kozo paper and Enduro Ice paper with embossed title. Three-part puzzle slipcase with embossed title.
13.8′ x 8.7′ x 0.6′
Artist Statement
"As with all my projects, the starting point for 211 is a literary text. A short Japanese story that fascinated me so much over ten years ago that I wanted to use it for an artist‘s book and have it translated into German. Unfortunately, when I asked for permission to print a small edition of the original text and to translate it into German, a number of problems arose. So, for the first and so far only time, I had to put a project I had started back in the drawer.
In the summer of 2022, I was sorting through my archive and came across the extensive preparatory work for the project again, which still fascinated me and at the same time awakened my ambition to circumvent the printing permission that was never granted. I began with various attempts to edit the text to produce a readable result without infringing [on] the copyright, and in the end decided to have the text professionally encrypted."
meet the semifinalists
Watch our MCBA Prize Reveal event
See the MCBA Prize exhibition
Upcoming Exhibitions
