The Elizabeth Soutar Bookbinding Competition - 2012 Awards

While Literary Awards are typically viewed as being focused upon the written word and narratives, the changing landscape of literature will, I believe, alter the way in which we view the physical object of the book and its production (more on this here).

Some awards, such as the little known Elizabeth Soutar Bookbinding Awards, move away from the words on the page and focus upon the manual craft and imagination involved in the creation of the book itself.  The Elizabeth Soutar Bookbinding Competition is an annual prize awarded to individuals who practice the fading art and craft of bookbinding.  In its 20^th year, the award is divided into four categories: Best Creative Binding, Best Creative Binding (Student entry), Best Craft Binding and Best Craft Binding (Student entry).  The competition is open to all residents of the EU, which makes for a spectacularly varied shortlist and artistic influences, and the entry must be ‘a single example of a craft or creative biding and have been bound exclusively for this competition’.

Such rules make this award particularly unique in its treatment of the book.  The award does not reward the text itself, or the mass-produced bound book, instead, it recognises the intricate and delicate craft involved with decorating and preserving a text.  This year’s judges, Darryl Mead (Deputy National Librarian, National Library of Scotland), Jim Hutcheson (Creative Director Birlinn Ltd. Publishing) and Mark Burns (City of Glasgow College), looked for ‘individual expression and originality’ when taking into consideration the submissions.

The awards ceremony, held at the National Library of Scotland on the 5^th February was a modest and remarkably short affair (the ceremony itself lasted no longer than twenty minutes).  While reserved, the audience-a mixture of shortlistees, artists, academics and amateur bookbinders-were clearly a galvanized bunch, who congratulated all winners heartily (despite their moment of fame being closer to 15 seconds than 15 minutes).  What’s more, the shortlist and winners list exposes the geographical broadness of this award.  Three of the four winners were from Spain, the fourth coming from the Netherlands, and as you will see from below, this is not an unusual coincidence: most of the shortlisted bookbinders come from mainland Europe, particularly Spain.  Perhaps the UK is still not quite ready to appreciate the artistic elements of the book, but at least the National Library of Scotland are giving some exposure to this celebration of beautifully preserved books.

The rules of the competition state that entries should be ‘a single example’ and be ‘bound exclusively’ for the competition and Entry Forms are now available for the 2013 Elizabeth Soutar Bookbinding Awards.  Perhaps more of us should give it a go, that way, the event will become a greater celebration of original artistic creativity and books!

All of the winning and shortlisted books are exhibited in the National Library of Scotland’s exhibition space and, unfortunately, photography is not allowed here so I cannot show you images of all winning texts (any images used I have sourced from the artists themselves).  However, the books are to be exhibited for the next couple of weeks and I urge all of you to go and have a look at them.  All are stunning, and some are quite remarkable!

Winners and awards:

     

Best Creative Binding

 Pilar Calahorra (Spain)

£1,200

Best Creative Binding (student entry)

Raul Garcia de Madinabeitia (Spain)

£600

Best Craft Binding
Juan A. Fernández Argenta (Spain)

£1,200

Best Craft Binding (student entry)
Annie Van Bruggen Mevissen (Netherlands)
£600

Commendations from the judges:

Andrew Brown (UK)
María Inéz Roldán Morales (Spain)

The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood, a Canongate publication
of 2005 Re bound - Cotton binka fabric with embroidery
silk and needle, digital photography

My own personal highlights from shortlistees:

Penny Stanford (UK)
A beautifully presented edition of Margaret Atwood's The Penelopiad

Toon Van Camp (Belgium)

A large, glossy and ornate piece by this well established and multi-award winning binder.

Patricia Burge (UK)
A striking binding of Yellow Wolf: His Own Story by Lucullus Virgil McWhorter.

For more information on the awards go to: http://www.nls.uk/about-us/awards#bookbinding