The Sixth Helen Warren DeGolyer Triennial Exhibition and Competition for American Bookbinding

ANNOUNCING THE 2012 HELEN WARREN DEGOLYER BOOKBINDING COMPETITION
Bridwell Library - Perkins School of Theology
Southern Methodist University

 2012 AWARDS AND PRIZES

• HELEN WARREN DEGOLYER AWARD FOR AMERICAN BOOKBINDING
  $6000 Commission
  This award honors the entry that demonstrates the best of creativity and craftsmanship in the art of fine bookbinding.
• AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN FINE BINDING
  $2000 Prize
  This award recognizes a completed binding that demonstrates excellence in structure, technique, and selection and use of materials.
• AWARD FOR DESIGN
  $1000 Prize
  This award recognizes a design that demonstrates originality, effectiveness, and appropriateness to the selected text.

The book selected for this competition is:

Thomas à Kempis, Libri quatuor De imitatione Christi. Paris: Ex Typographia Fratris Regis natu proximi (Pierre-François Didot), 1788.

The Imitation of Christ is the most widely read Christian text after the Bible. Consisting of four Books, the first two offer counsel on the spiritual life, the third teaches on the inward consolation of the soul and the fourth extols the virtues of the Eucharist. The Latin text was written around 1418 by Augustinian canon Thomas à Kempis (ca. 1380–1471).The Imitation of Christ has appeared in hundreds of translations and has been printed in some ten thousand editions. Its spirit of personal devotion patterned on the life of Christ has been embraced by Catholics and Protestants alike and has profoundly influenced the spiritual reflections of readers from its first appearance through the present day.

Winners will be announced at the opening of the Helen Warren DeGolyer Exhibition for American Bookbinding on June 8, 2012.

View the 2012 Helen Warren DeGolyer Book Binding Competition Call to Competitors pdf.

The 2009 Helen Warren DeGolyer Exhibition and Bookbinding Competition can be viewed online at
http://smu.edu/bridwell/DeGolyer/degolyer2009/index.htm

View past DeGolyer Bookbinding Competition winners and participants by year:

2009 Competition

2006 Competition

2003 Competition

2012 Judges:

Roberta Schaafsma, J.S. Bridwell Foundation Endowed Librarian, has been the Director of Bridwell Library for nearly five years. She has graduate degrees from The University of Michigan and Chicago Theological Seminary.

Eric White, PhD, has been Curator of Special Collections at Bridwell Library since 1997. His research on Bridwell’s holdings includes an article on an inscribed copy of the Imitatio Christi donated to Basel’s Carthusian monastery in 1487, and the exhibition catalogue Six Centuries of Master Bookbinding at Bridwell Library. He has been involved in all six occurrences of the Helen Warren DeGolyer Triennial Exhibition and Competition for American Bookbinding.

Priscilla Spitler was winner of the Fifth Triennial Helen Warren DeGolyer Exhibition and Bookbinding Competition. She studied bookbinding with Alfred Brazer and John Mitchell at the London College of Printing, and design binding with James Brockman at the University of Texas at Austin. She was edition binder at Booklab for eight years before establishing in 1995 Hands On Bookbinding, now located in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico.

Russell Martin has been the Director of the DeGolyer Library at SMU since 2001. Previously he was a curator at the American Antiquarian Society. He holds a BA and MA from SMU, an MS from Illinois, and a PhD in English from Virginia. He has published numerous essays and reviews in the fields of American literature, folklore, history, and bibliography.

Jace Graf worked in commercial printing, typesetting and design in Austin before attending the Graduate Book Arts Program at Mills College in Oakland, California. After earning a masters degree at Mills in 1990, he worked for five years at Booklab in Austin. In 1996 he established his own book arts business in Austin, Cloverleaf Studio, where he specializes in edition binding, boxes and portfolios of all kinds, and book design.

If you have questions, please call (214) 768-3483 or e-mail bridadmin@smu.edu