Competitions

Designer Bookbinders International Bookbinding Competition 2009
In Association with the Bodleian Library, Oxford, Great Britain

EXHIBITION
The Bodleian Library’s exhibition ‘1000 Years of Bookbinding’ will present an overview of the development of the art and craft of bookbinding from the last thousand years and will draw heavily from the Library’s own collections, especially the magnificent Broxbourne Collection. The show will be supplemented by important examples from other collections. Designer Bookbinders are proud to be associated with this important and long-overdue survey and will curate a complementary display of selected competition bindings.

VENUE
The historical exhibition will be shown in the Bodleian Library’s exhibition venue located off the Old Schools Quadrangle and will run from June to October 2009. The selected Competition bindings will be displayed in showcases in an adjacent space within the Library for a period of approximately eight weeks from June 2009, after which a tour to the USA is planned.

CATALOGUE
Designer Bookbinders will produce a catalogue to accompany the Bodleian’s fully-illustrated historical catalogue of bookbinding. This will be 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.

SCHEDULE
The Set Book, together with an entry form, will be sent out to all registered entrants in January 2008.
The closing date for submission of bindings is 30 November 2008.
An international Board of Judges will meet in Oxford and judging will take place in January 2009.
The Prizegiving Ceremony will take place in Oxford on the night of the exhibition opening in June 2009.
Dates will be communicated to all entrants in good time.

RULES

• It is a stipulation that the First Prize binding will be given by the binder to the Bodleian Library, and that the Second Prize binding will be given by the binder to the Getty Collection at Wormsley in Oxfordshire, UK.
• Your name, or any kind of identifying personal mark or symbol, must NOT appear on any part of your submitted binding.
• Except for edge-gilding, all work submitted must be made entirely by the individual binder. Any binding made by more than one individual will not be accepted.
• An ‘object-shaped’ binding or ‘book-work’ may be submitted provided its overall dimensions do not exceed 400mm high x 300mm wide x 50mm deep. This is due to the space limitations of the showcases. Any binding exceeding these dimensions will not be considered.
• All work must be submitted in a protective box or case.
• Binders should arrange to insure their work in transit to the delivery address on the Entry Form. The work will be insured once it has been received by the Competition organisers.
• The organisers cannot handle any sales, but will be happy to pass on enquiries to the binder.
• The Competition is open to all binders except the Board of Judges.
• The Judges’ decision is final and neither Designer Bookbinders nor the judges can enter into any correspondence.
• The closing date for submission of bindings is 30 November 2008. Work arriving after this date can only be considered for judging at the organisers’ discretion.
• Entrants who submit work to the Competition do so in the knowledge that if their work is selected for exhibition it will be retained by Designer Bookbinders for the touring exhibitions and will only be returned following the final exhibition.
  
  

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