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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.

Since 2002, The Caxton Club has awarded more than 50 recipients with grants totaling over $90,000. The Club, founded in 1895 in Chicago, is devoted to the literary study and promotion of the arts pertaining to the production of books. For the 2019-20 academic year, Caxton Club grants are being offered to Midwestern graduate students with projects in the following areas: bibliography, book arts, history of the book, library studies, print culture studies, and zines.

There are also grants available for a School of the Art Institute of Chicago undergraduate creating a book project and early career Rare Book School attendees.

Deadlines are October 15.

For more information and calls for entry go to

https://thecaxtonclub.submittable.com

IMAGE CREDITS: Work by 2015-19 grant recipients Amy Richard, Jude Yaw Agboada, Joseph Mora, Jose Resendiz, Kitt Gallagher, Mirjana Ursulesku, Krista Narciso

To download, view and print the poster, click here.

The submission deadline is October 15th.  For more information and calls for entry, visit https://thecaxtonclub.submittable.com.

The October 1st deadline is fast approaching.  For more information and calls for entry, visit https://thecaxtonclub.submittable.com.