4th Sheffield International Artist's Book Prize winners announced

Bank Street Arts in Sheffield has announced the jury and student winners of the 4th Sheffield International Artist’s Book Prize| . Of the five winners, one is from The Netherlands, one is from the USA, one from Poland and India, and two from the UK.

There were 455 entries to the 2013 prize, a ten-fold increase on the number of entries received for the first prize five years ago. Entries were from 35 countries, with more than half from outside the UK. There were over 120 student entries.

Every entry is a newly created and artist-made book. All of them will be exhibited at Bank Street Arts between 5 October and 30 November. The winner of the main prize will be decided by visitor vote and announced on 30 November.

4th Sheffield International Artist’s Book Prize – winners

Jury Prize - joint winners

'What to do' / 'Wat te doen' by Bas Fontein (Netherlands)
'tea and water pipe' by Erin K Schmidt (USA)

Jury Prize - joint runners-up

'Correspondance' by Radoslaw Nowakowski & Venantius J. Pinto (Poland/India)

'Made to Please/Damaged Goods' by Yvonne Jones (UK)'

Student prize

'The Great Fire of Eydon' by Isla Millar (UK)- pictured

This year’s prize has attracted entries in all shapes and sizes – books made from wool, cloth, metal, wood, plastic, porcelain and every type of paper imaginable. There are books that light up when opened, elaborate paper sculptures, an eight-volume illustrated novel that was ten years in the making, pop-up books, cut-out books and sculptural books.

The exhibition of the entries will include a jury selection of 130 books displayed in the same gallery. A series of artist’s book-related events is taking place at Bank Street Arts and the University of Sheffield to coincide with the exhibition. These include workshops, talks, performances and a symposium. Bank Street Arts is also collaborating with Sheffield’s Off the Shelf festival to show artist’s books from the collection at venues across the city centre for the duration of the exhibition.

Judge Elizabeth James, Senior Librarian, National Art Library Collections, V&A, said: ‘All the judges challenge visitors to the exhibition to disagree with our jury selection of 130 books. We hope to inspire a debate about an engaging medium that is wary of definition.’

Sheffield International Artist’s Book Prize was in inaugurated in 2008 and is the largest prize and exhibition of artist’s books anywhere in the world. The prize, which is free to enter, is organised by and held at Bank Street Arts, an independent multi-disciplinary arts centre in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. Entrants are encouraged to donate their books to the growing collection of artists’ books at Bank Street Arts. The collection is made up exclusively of entries to the Sheffield International Artist’s Book Prize.

The prize is supported by funding from Arts Council England and sponsored by higher education charity the Open College of the Arts. Established following conversations at Leeds Artist’s Book Fair with participants and visitors, the prize meets Bank Street Arts’ aims of innovation and inclusivity in creation, display and discourse.

The 2008 prize attracted over 50 entries and was the first artist’s book competition in the UK. In 2009, the number of entries rose to 85 and in 2011, when the prize become a biennial event, to 180 entries from over 22 countries. The visitors’ prize was introduced in the same year as a way of encouraging people visiting the exhibition to give the books more than the cursory glance exhibited work often receives.

The winning entry to the 2008 prize, Katherine Johnson’s Make, was acquired by the Centre for Fine Print Research Collection at UWE in Bristol. Claire Tindale’s Memory Loss, joint winner of the 2009 jury prize, was acquired by Tate Library.