GRANTS

The Caxton Club Scholarship is awarded to an individual living in the Midwest with professional interests in bibliography, book history, or the book arts who has not previously attended RBS.

The successful applicant must live in one of the following states: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota or Wisconsin. The award will fund tuition as well as travel and housing costs up to a total of $2500.00.  This scholarship will be awarded to first-time RBS attendees and preference will be given to candidates early in their careers who are ineligible for funding or financial aid through their places of employment.

Applications will be accepted directly by RBS starting October 1.  To apply, please submit an RBS scholarship application by the November 1 deadline at  https://rarebookschool.org/admissions-awards/scholarships

The Caxton Club is pleased to announce its support for Georgia State University historian Nick Wilding and his efforts encouraging student book collecting. We’ve already appreciated Nick’s program to our club on the forgery of Galileo’s Sidereus Nuncius and his central role in its exposure. The Bibliographical Society of America recently recognized Nick with a Community Grant which he applied to establishing a contest for Georgia State student book enthusiasts. Winners of this contest are Cole Hale, David Casey, and Fariha Hossain. A copy of the club’s publication, Other People’s Books: Association Copies and the Stories They Tell, has been sent with a letter of congratulations to each winner.

2020 – Kerri Mulcare

2019 – Kadin Henningsen

2017 – Matthew Blackwell

2016 – Sarah Evenson

2015 – Lindsey O’Brien

2019–2020

Suzanne Glemot

Sara Jensen

Annabel Pinkney

John Swab

Katherine DeLamater

Yann Trividic

Meha Ray

2018–2019

Jude Agboada

Kalia Daily

Shoko Nakamura

Krista Narciso

Mirjana Ursulesku

Caroline Wood

Kitt Gallagher

2017–2018

Christine Manwiller

Michelle Moode

Kazumi Wilds

Sonia Farmer

J. Dakota Brown

Honorable Mention:

Nicole Cotton

Kazumi Seki

Elise Hochhalter

Sarah Luko

Stephanie Koch

Joseph Mora

2016–2017

Lisa Miles

Michelle C. Moode

Ruby Figueroa

Woody Leslie

Stephanie Wang

Sarah Krupa

2015–2016

Hannah Batsel

Mary Butler

John Creighton Fifield

Ian Hubert

Jose Resendiz

Amy Richard

Catharine Batliner

2014–2015

Hannah Batsel

Keith Graham

Candida Pagan

Radha Pandey

Matt Runkle

2013–2014

Heather Buechler

Anne Covell

Pamela Olson

Clare Jones

Greta Smith

2012–2013

Alex Borgen

Jamie Weaver

2011–2012

Christopher Saclolo

2010–2011

Jana Smith

Ashley Hairston

Linda Brocato

2009–2010

Kelly Parsell

2008–2009

Teresa Pankratz

Daniel Mellis

2007–2008

Amy Jacobs

Drew Matott

John Vincler

2006–2007

Jenny Kim

Mark Moroney

2005–2006

Sara Otto

Aimee Lee

2004–2005

Ben Blount

Mardy Sears

2003–2004

Kerri Cushman

Elisabeth Long

2002–2003

Emily Reiser

Jill Summers

Click here to download/print the following announcement.

Press Release

November 18, 2019

CHICAGO–The Caxton Club is pleased to announce that it is awarding more than $10,000 in grants to Midwestern area book artists and researchers for the 2019-2020 grant period.

The grants of up to $2,500 each will be given to graduate and undergraduate students to help them pursue projects in book arts and book related projects.

In addition to the grants, the Club also awarded Caxton Club memberships and copies of books published under the Caxton Club imprint to the winners of the T. Kimball Brooker Prize for undergraduate book collecting at the University of Chicago. It also awarded books to all Mellon Rare Book Scholars and National Collegiate Book Collector recipients, and Honey and Wax Book Collecting Prize winners.

The 2019-2020 graduate student grantees are:

Katharine DeLamater, University of Iowa, “Thickening Fear of Air”

Suzanne Glemot, University of Iowa, “Entreduex: Memories of the Sea”

Sara Jensen, University of Iowa, “Falling”

Annabel Pinkney, University of Illinois, “Advanced Studies of the Book Structure”

John Swab, University of Kentucky, “Mapping Risk: Fire Insurance Map Production in the 19th and 20th Centuries”

The Colleen Dionne Memorial Grant for a School of the Art Institute of Chicago undergraduate with book arts projects was awarded to two students:

Meha Ray, 

Yann Trividic, “The Equation of Happiness”

The Caxton Club received grant proposals from graduate students at Columbia College Chicago, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the University of Iowa, the University of Kentucky, the University of Illinois, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Also a $2,500 scholarship will be awarded for a Midwesterner to attend a course at Rare Book School. The recipient will be chosen by an RBS committee and will be announced later this year.

Since 2002, the Club has given out more than $90,000 to support the book arts and help create the next generation of book artists.

Martin Antonetti, Director of Special Collections, Northwestern University Libraries said, “I found the overall quality of the applications to be quite high in terms of concept and execution and it was wonderful to be able to examine and discuss the individual entries with such a learned and accomplished cadre of fellow-judges. Supporting contemporary book artists, and engaging with this vigorous field, is one of the really important things that the Caxton Club does!”

The Caxton Club is a not-for-profit organization devoted to the study and promotion of the book arts. It was founded in 1895 by fifteen Chicago bibliophiles who desired to support the publication of fine books in the spirit of the prevailing Arts and Crafts Movement.

For more information about the Caxton Club visit: http://www.caxtonclub.org.

Additional information on the Funded Projects

Meha Ray, SAIC Colleen Dionne Grant

“Since very early on, I have had the privilege of travelling to far corners of the planet, not only as a tourist but also as a new settler for a few years at a time. As a result of this journey I have learnt to read, write and understand 5 languages, hence the name of the project,” states Ray. “In view of the idea that people are born in one location and [...] life takes them to others where they form memories of these experiences; [my book] will explore in printed form the nature of memories and how they overlap and fade as we continue to grow.” Ray will produce a hand printed book that welcomes the viewer into her life journey “through the patterns and colour of textiles” [...] It will be a summary of her odyssey but also emphasize the importance of pattern and the symbolism in it.

Letterpress printing, woodblock, accordion book, stab binding, original poem, textile patterns, edition of 5. Memories, travel, multilingual.

Yann Trividic, SAIC Colleen Dionne Grant

“The Equation of Happiness”

Trividic is an exchange student from École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris in France to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

His project is based on aggregated numerical data - on inputs such as food, social interactions, and more. It is based on 413 days in his life, information gathered in order to find a relation between those values and happiness. The data includes equations, algorithms, graphs, diagrams and writings., states Trividic. “I argue that there is a

[...] strong relation of causality existing between my data and my happiness. [...] This artist’s book will be an artistic scientific article, a hybrid.”

A previous iteration of the project includes a performance/presentation at Beaux-Arts de Paris

https://vimeo.com/349836659

One of a kind, science/art, data, algorithms, handmade box, bilingual, English and French.

Grants for Graduate Student with Book Art or Book-related Projects

Katharine DeLamater, University of Iowa “Thickening Fear of Air”

DeLamater says, “These books [...] reflect on tensions between shelter and isolation, as well as the enduring power of survival. [...] In my creative writing practice, I make lists of words commonly used to describe caves: hollow, bottomless, yawning pit. I’ve gathered the words from spelunking guides, as well as personal reflections as I navigate estranged and tenuous relationships. Language once used to describe the thrill of underground adventure can easily be transformed to describe grief and longing, as well as the quiet comfort of solitude.” Letterpress, artists book, experimental printing, handmade paper, stenciled paper pulp, handmade boxes, original text by the artist.

Suzanne Glemot, University of Iowa “Entreduex: Memories of the Sea”

Glemot’s proposal is made up of “bilingual narrative vignettes that contend with experiences of cultural liminality in both the French and the English languages, not as translations of one another but as a fluently bilingual mode of writing. The artist states, “I am developing literary and visual imagery of the landscape that surrounds the small coastal village of Pléhérel Plage as a lens through which to investigate cultural in-betweenness. [...] passing as culturally ‘not-other’ in one’s own country of citizenship, all the while existing in a state of not- belonging engendered by having a dual-nationality. As this fall marks my tenth year in these United States, I am [...] considering my dual citizenship with France and the significance of my United States citizenship, exploring questions I have about the relationship between memory, language, and place.”

Bilingual French/English, artists book, handmade paper, letterpress printing, hand-painted photopolymer negatives, edition of 30

Sara Jensen, University of Iowa

“Falling”

Jenson’s book is based on “the poem “Falling” by American Poet Laureate James Dickey. [...] States the artist, “Falling” was inspired by a real-life event of an airline stewardess who fell from an airplane flying over the Midwest, and spins the story of her fall into a moving metaphor for life and regeneration after death. [...] The content of the book will include the poem in its entirety and images of the sky and a birds-eye view of the landscape to simulate the perspective of someone falling from the sky.”

Letterpress, poetry, artists book, pressure-printing, photopolymer, edition of 10

Annabel Pinkney, University of Illinois

“Advanced Studies of the Book Structure.”

Pinkney states, “This grant will provide the means for me to purchase the tools necessary to complete my intended project, ‘Advanced Studies of the Book Structure.’ This project aligns with the mission and purpose of the Caxton Club as it endorses direct practical experience in the historic craft of bookbinding and training in conservation. [...] For this project, I have the opportunity to work with University of Illinois special collections conservator, Quinn Ferris, who will act as my mentor throughout, and I will be permitted to utilize the university’s conservation lab space to conduct my work. This effort will solidify my bookbinding and book repair skills critical to entering the field of book conservation.”

Bookbinding, book conservation, library studies, research

John Swab, University of Kentucky

“Mapping Risk: Fire Insurance Map Production in the 19th and 20th Centuries”

From Swab’s proposal: “Historic fire insurance maps of the United States, Canada, Britain, and other countries impacted by Anglo-American economic influence have long been utilized as key documents to contextualize past urban built environments. While much work has occurred around inventorying these collections and utilizing these maps and atlases as source materials, materials, little of the history of this cartographic form has been told. Fire insurance map companies were among the largest filers for copyright protection during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and the process of data acquisition, production, and circulation of these maps has been little explored. [...] Charles E. Goad Limited, originally based in Montreal and eventually London, surveyed Canada, the British Isles, and numerous imperial outposts including cities in South Africa, Egypt, and Chile. The British Library holds 39 volumes of letterbooks from the Goad Company from 1899 to 1913 and from 1917 to 1918 related to the production and circulation of insurance maps.

I anticipate that these 39 letterbooks will shed light on some of these questions and raise many new insights into the process of producing, circulating, and administrating fire insurance maps. With the dearth of published, peer- reviewed literature about both companies and the lack of a robust Sanborn corporate archive, the Goad Company collection at the British Library is the logical—and perhaps only— place to find the answers for these questions.” Bibliography, research, travel, mapping

For further information, contact: 

Media contact: Martha Chiplis at mchiplis@gmail.com.