Winners of the second OPEN • SET competition were just announced by the American Academy of Bookbinding, as well as the participants of the moving exhibition that tour the US throughout the next year.

OPEN • SET is a triannual competition held by the American Academy of Bookbinding located in Telluride, Colorado. The decision was made by the panel of three judges: Monique Lallier, Mark Esser, and Patricia Owen.

Competition is split into two parts: Open book and Set book. Set book this time was Happy Abstract — A letter from William Blake to Thomas Butts, dated 11 September 1801.

Congratulations to all of the winners and authors of the binding included in the exhibition!

This post will be updated with additional photos and descriptions of the bindings that received the Highly Commended Award and bindings included to the traveling exhibition.

Open Category Winners

First Prize — Rahel Scheufele, GERMANY

Thorvald Henningsen by Hans Burkhardt

Second Prize — Sofia Mendizabal, ARGENTINA

Histoires Comme Ca, Rudyard Kipling

Third Prize — Guadalupe Roldán Morales, SPAIN

Macbeth, William Shakespeare

Set Category Winners

First Prize — Pilar N Calahorra Moreno de la Santa, SPAIN

Second Prize — Lili Hall Sharp, UNITED STATES

Third Prize — Susana Domínguez Martin, SPAIN

Highly Commended Bindings

There were also many Highly Commended bindings in each of these two categories.

Open Category

Candela Ines Mirabella — Full Edge Detail

Coleen Curry — Leather Treatment

Ce qui aurait pu demeurer silence — poems by Rachida Madani, published by AL MANAR Editions

Photos by: Black Cat Studio

Colin Urbina — Leather Treatment

Tourbillon, a poem by Eugène Guillevic with prints by Julius Baltazar. Published by Alain Piroir in 1990. The binding is fair calf with alcohol-based dyes used to mimic the prints found inside the book. Spots are achieved by applying water to the surface of the leather. Scratches made to simulate some of the texture on the prints in the book.

Françoise Buniazet — Use of Materials

Jacek Tylkowski — Decorative Technique

Ubik by Philip K. Dick. Sobota’s style binding (Three Coverboard Structure) covered in black and old gold (the middle layer) goatskin. The font design is made by hand using Japanese screw punch. Top edge decoration made with pigment foil of 4 colors and gold foil. Clamshell box covered in black buckram.

Joelle Bocel — Unique Structure

Lise Dubois — Onlay/Inlay

Luke Hornus — Fore Edge Painting

Pénélope Guidoni — Design

Set Category

Andrea Odametey — Paper Manipulation

Annika Baudry — Cover Treatment

Coleen Curry — Materials Manipulation

Photos by: Black Cat Studio

Elena Sánchez — Paper Manipulation

Eva Vincze — Unique Structure

Geert Stevens — Unique Structure

The drawing printed on the book is a fragment of graphic work by Lotte Campforts

Ingela Dierick — Use of Materials

Rahel Scheufele — Use of Leather

Richard Beadsmoore — Tooling

Sofia Mendizabal — Inlay

Sol Rébora — Technique

2020 Exhibition Venues

The Exhibition opens on February 19, 2020, at the Grolier Club in New York City.

NEW YORK CITY – The Grolier Club

February 19 – April 25

SAN FRANCISCO – The American Bookbinders Museum

May 15 – July 10

SALT LAKE CITY – Marriot Library, University of Utah

July 31 – October 2

AUSTIN – Austin Public Library

October 13 – December 2

Some of the Other Bindings That Participated in the Competition

Kathy Abbott — Open book

Unpublished Early Poems of Tennyson

Gavin Dovey / Paper Dragon Books — Set book

Brenda Gallagher — Open book

Songs of Myself by Walt Whitman

Karen Hanmer — Set book

Huhu Hu — Set book

Full leather binding. Covered in blue goatskin decorated with incisions underlaid with various colors. Edge-to-edge hand-paint paper doublures and flyleaves. Hand-sewn headbands with specially curved shapes. The text is decorated with leather oil dye with a transfer technique.

Read more here: https://www.facebook.com/huhu.hu.754/posts/10213923628985598

Adelene Koh — Set book

This is a full Tyvek® binding with laced-in boards using hand-dyed Tyvek® with alcohol dyes and letterpress inks. The hand-sewn double core Japanese silk endbands are in random colors to match edge decoration. The book edges are decorated using alcohol inks and tooled with metallic foil dots. Tyvek®-jointed Tyvek® flyleaves dyed using alcohol dyes and light blue paper doublures. There are tiny metallic foil tooling on covers that almost cannot be seen until you tilt the book in various directions and when the light catches the foil tooling.

Read more about the project and find much more photos here: https://www.dddots.com/post/188014304448/happy-abstract-a-letter-by-william-blake

Colin Urbina — Set book

Ulrich Widmann — Open book

Svato Verlag, Ich bin nur Flamme, Gedichte des Expressionismus. Full leather binding, calfskin, leather cut and dyed.

Ulrich Widmann — Set book

Half leather, goat skin with open joint and organic-formed and structured and colored covers.

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