COMPETITIONS
Designer Bookbinders International Bookbinding Competition
Organised in association with the Bodleian Libraries, Oxford the Designer Bookbinders International Exhibition showcases the finest bookbinding talent from around the world. Successful entries are exhibited and a full-colour catalogue is produced. For information on the forthcoming International Competition or to see the results and images of the books from previous years, make a selection from the below menu.
Designer Bookbinders International Bookbinding Competition 2022
In association with the Bodleian Libraries, Oxford, and supported by Mark Getty
Registration is now closed for the Designer Bookbinders International Bookbinding Competition 2022. All those binders registered will have received their submission numbers and Entry information and forms. Please send your bindings in between 2nd August – 27th August 2021 following all the instructions sent. Judging will take place in September. The prizegiving will take place during the summer of 2022.
Information about the competition, along with the rules can be found here.
The chosen theme of plants, gardens and anything connected with flora helps celebrate the 400th Anniversary of the founding of the Oxford Botanic Gardens, the oldest Botanic Garden in Great Britain and one of the oldest Scientific gardens in the world.
Plants play a central role to life on Earth. They have provided food, clothing, shelter & medicines for many centuries. Plants have many symbolic uses in art, mythology and literature and gardens have provided employment, leisure and enjoyment throughout history. There are many and varied texts available on this expansive subject.
There is no set book. It is hoped that entrants will be stimulated by the opportunity to produce or source a text of their choice to work with and feel encouraged to make use of a wide range of structures, materials and design techniques. It is worth noting that many collectors place great importance on the quality of the text as well as the style of binding.
NOTE TO ENTRANTS
If you have already registered for the competition but have lost any of the forms sent to you, you can download copies with the links below:
Entry Form • Entrant Check List • Data Protection Form
Prizes
Two major prizes will be awarded in honour of Sir Paul Getty KBE (1932-2003), one of our greatest book collectors and a passionate advocate for the art and craft of bookbinding.
Sir Paul Getty Bodleian Bookbinding Prizes:
1st Prize – £10,000
2nd Prize – £6,000
Silver Prizes:
A further 25 highly-commended entrants will receive a silver prize.
Oxford University Students’ Choice: £500
The prizewinners will be announced at the Award Ceremony which will take place in Oxford in June 2022. There are plans for a new event: a ‘Festival of Bookbinding’ to take place at the Bodleian at the same time.
Judging
The Jury will be made up of an international panel of judges who will be looking for a high standard of craftsmanship and technical ability with relation to the bookbinding process. Successful entries will show evidence of good forwarding and structural functionality, together with original, innovative and accomplished design.
Exhibition / Catalogue
The exhibition of selected entries, including all the prizewinners, will open during the event in Oxford at the Bodleian Library in late June 2022. This will showcase the finest bookbinding talent from around the world. A full-colour catalogue will be produced illustrating all entries. Every entrant will receive a copy of the catalogue, together with a signed Certificate of Participation.
Sourcing texts
There are a number of websites with good quality texts in a wide selection of versions, languages and prices. Here are a few examples to help with your search:
Abebooks.com
Amazon
Biblio.com
Bookfinder.com
Booksold.com
Ebay
Usedbooksearch.co.uk
Zvab.de
Private and small press and publishing sites in your country
Designer Bookbinders International Bookbinding Competition 2017
In association with Mark Getty and the Bodleian Libraries, Oxford, Great Britain
The prizewinning bindings and photos from the prize-giving can be seen here.
The Awards Ceremony and opening of the Exhibition ‘Heroic Works’ took place on Monday 17 July 2017 in the Blackwell Hall of the Bodleian’s new Weston Library, Oxford.
SIR PAUL GETTY BODLEIAN PRIZES
First Prize (£10,000. Binding given to the Bodleian Library)
Andrea Odametey (Germany): Daedelus and Icarus
Second Prize (£6,000. Binding given to the Getty Collection at Wormsley)
Rachel Ward-Sale (UK): The Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite
A Silver Prize was awarded to the 25 Distinguished Winners for the best entries in the Competition.
It is a perspex doric column with the top and bottom in hallmarked sterling silver, engraved with the binder’s name. A silver block of type spelling out HERO sits on top.
Designed and made by
the jeweller Gerry Summers gerrysummersjewellery.com
25 Distinguished Winners of the Silver Prize
Juan Antonio Fernández Argenta (Spain): Islands
Kaitlin Barber (Canada): Equus
Fabrizio Bertolotti (Italy): Héraclès
Hannah Brown (UK): The Fables of Æsop
Martine Clamagirand-Roth (France): Les Métamorphoses d’Ovide
Gavin Dovey (USA): Metamorphoses
Mark Esser (USA): Blind Date
Keiko Fujii (Japan): Légendes Japonaises
Eri Funazaki (UK): Great Little Man
Jenni Grey (UK): Antigone
Pénélope Guidoni (Czech Republic): Orphée à Eurydice
Kate Holland (UK): Nine Dragons
Midori Kunikata-Cockram (UK): The Serpent with Eight Heads
Monique Lallier (USA): Pantagruel
Anna Linssen, (The Netherlands): Attila
Ting-Hsuan Lu (Taiwan): Hope In Hell – Inside the World of Doctors without Borders
Tom McEwan (UK): Clair de Lune and other Troubadour Romances
Steven Orriss (UK): Dracula
Sol Rébora (Argentina): The Noble Knight Paris & the Fair Vienne
Guadalupe Roldán Morales (Spain): Criaturas de la Mitología Espanõla
Caroline Seidel (Germany): Die Prinzessin von Babylon
Christopher Shaw (UK): The Golden Ass
Priscilla Spitler (USA): In the Garden
Julian Thomas (UK): The Poems of Taliesin
Daniel Wray (UK): The Iron Man
Oxford University Students’ Choice (£500)
Kaori Maki (UK): The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter
Exhibition Touring Dates 2017
Weston Library, Oxford – 18 July – 20 August
Library of Birmingham – 23 August – 28 September
St Bride Foundation, London – 2-14 October
North Bennet Street School, Boston, USA – 3 November – 22 December
The Exhibition at this venue will comprise the 28 Prizewinners and 8 USA binders ONLY.
Competition Catalogue
The Heroic Works catalogue, illustrating in full colour all 184 entries, is available in our online shop or direct from the Bodleian Shop, Oxford. Price £30.
Designer Bookbinders International Bookbinding Competition 2013
In association with Mark Getty and the Bodleian Libraries, Oxford, Great Britain
The prizewinning bindings can be seen here.
Read the Press Release (PDF).
The Prizewinners
First Prize
Dominic Riley (UK)
Second Prize
Eduardo Giménez (Spain)
Distinguished Winners
Hannah Brown (UK)
Eliška Cabalová-Hlavácová (Czech Republic)
Stephen Conway (UK)
Odette Drapeau (Canada)
Mark Esser (USA)
Juan Antonio Fernández Argenta (Spain)
Keiko Fujii (Japan)
Jenni Grey (UK)
Derek Hood (UK)
Angela James (UK)
George Kirkpatrick (UK)
Trevor Lloyd (UK)
Emily Martin (USA)
Andrea Odametey (Germany)
Nicky Oliver (UK)
Sol Rébora (Argentina)
Claudia Richter (Germany)
Guadalupe Roldán Morales (Spain)
Elisabeth Schneider (Germany)
Eduardo Tarrico (Argentina)
Ann Tout (UK)
Charo Vermenouze (Spain)
Rachel Ward-Sale (UK)
Daniel Wray (UK)
Jan Zimmerlich (Switzerland)
Oxford University Students’ Choice
Yuri Nomura (Japan)
Touring Exhibition
European Tour
Bodleian Libraries, Oxford 11 June – 10 August 2013
St Bride Foundation, London 15 August – 20 September 2013
Bibliotheca Wittockiana , Brussels 28 September – 12 January 2014
National Library of Estonia, Tallinn 25 January – 15 February 2014
Museum of Western Bohemia, Pilzen 28 February – 6 April 2014
Library of the Bauhaus University, Weimar 17 April – 9 May 2014
Museum of Printing Arts, Leipzig 18 May – 22 June 2014
Imprenta Municipal, Madrid 28 June – 5 September 2014
Japan Tour
Nerima Art Museum, Tokyo 28 September – 30 November 2014
Venue to be confirmed December 2014 – January 2015
Museum of Modern Art, Shiga 7 February – 5 April 2015
DESIGNER BOOKBINDERS INTERNATIONAL BOOKBINDING COMPETITION 2009
In Association with the Bodleian Library, Oxford, Great Britain
Announced in 2007, binders from all nations were invited to enter Designer Bookbinders first International Competition. The event was organised in conjunction with the Bodleian Library and an exhibition of selected competition entries is being shown alongside the Bodleian’s own exhibition ‘An Artful Craft – Fine and Historic Bookbindings from the Broxbourne Library and Other Collections’.
PRIZES
Designer Bookbinders International Bookbinding Competition 2009 featured two prizes awarded in honour of Sir Paul Getty KBE (1932-2003). Sir Paul Getty was one of our greatest book collectors and was a passionate advocate for the art and craft of bookbinding.
THE SIR PAUL GETTY BODLEIAN BOOKBINDING PRIZES
1st Prize GBP 7,500 – awarded to Alain Taral (France)
Binding made of pear wood covered by Karelian birch veneer. Decoration of “fusion” marquetry made of many different precious wood veneers including palm tree, yew, bubinga, lati, planetree, amboina, elm burrs, thuya and faiera. Wooden joints with steel axis. Suede flyleaves. Marquetery title. Wooden slipcase covered by Karelian birch veneer. Water comes to us from rocks, from mother earth, but also from clouds, sometimes from tears… at the beginning just a few drops that then come together to form streams and lakes.
2nd Prize GBP 3,000 – awarded to Jenni Grey (UK)
The pages have been divided into two bindings ‘Water’ and ‘Waterborn’. Machine embroidered grey Dypion-style fabric and airbrushed endpapers feature on both bindings. In ‘Water’, sterling silver wire fixings and etched acrylic, which creates shadows on the endpapers, are the predominant materials. The fold out container incorporates information about both books and has shell button fastenings. The design was inspired by the light and shade created by sun and clouds on the surface of the sea, and echoing the marbling forms in the text.
The Incline Press Award GBP 250 – awarded to Marja Wilgenkamp (Netherlands)
Presented by the publishers of the set book Water to the binder whose design most reflects their ideal for a trade edition of the book.
• Further details on the 1st and 2nd prizewinners can be found here.
In addition, specially designed sterling silver bone folders were awarded by the Judges for the 25 best bindings.
All entrants received a signed Diploma of Participation and their bindings appear in the illustrated competition catalogue.
• A full list of the exhibitors and prizewinners can be found here.
• All the prizewinning bindings can be seen here.
• Photos from the prizegiving ceremony can be seen here.
The First Prize binding is to be given by the binder to the Bodleian Library, and the Second Prize binding will be given by the binder to the Getty Collection at Wormsley in Oxfordshire, UK.
CATALOGUE
Designer Bookbinders has produced a catalogue to accompany the Bodleian’s fully-illustrated historical catalogue of bookbinding. ‘Bound For Success’ is a record of the International Competition 2009 with a photograph and description of every binding submitted. All entrants will receive a copy of this Competition catalogue.
The catalogue may also be purchased from this website – Price GBP30.00.
Further details can be found in the online shop.
USA TOUR
After Oxford the exhibition travelled to three venues in the USA:
Boston Public Library, Boston Mass. – Friday 18 Sept to Sunday 13 Dec, 2009
(Photos from the Private View can be seen here)
Bonhams & Butterfields, San Francisco – Friday 12 Feb to Saturday 6 Mar, 2010
Grolier Club, New York – Wednesday 19 May to Saturday 31 Jul, 2010
(Photos from the Private View can be seen here)