Each year, Special Collections at RISD Library hosts a juried student artists' book contest to promote engagement with the book arts, investigation of the Library's artists' book collection, and creative production in the book form at RISD. The contest and accompanying exhibition attract on average 45 submissions from RISD undergraduate, graduate, and continuing education students. All of the entries are displayed in the annual Library exhibit. A RISD faculty member or professional artist serves as juror, selecting prize winners from the submissions. All purchase prizes receive a cash award, and the winning student-made artists' books become part of the library's permanent collection. This year is the 11th installment of this program.

The deadline for entries is Thursday, December 12, 2024 at noon.

To submit an entry, fill out the online entry form and then bring your artist's book to:

Dale Reading Room for Archives + Special Collections
Fleet Library, 2nd Floor, Room 201
Hours: Monday - Friday 9:00-noon and 1-4:30 pm

Please note that all entries must be submitted in the Reading Room for Archives + Special Collections. If you are unable to bring your entry to the Reading Room during our open hours, please reach out to make arrangements. If you entry is not turned into the Reading Room by the deadline your entry will not be accepted.

• RISD undergraduate, graduate, and continuing education students are invited to enter an artist's book that they have completed within the year prior to the deadline (December 2023 - December 2024).

• All entries must be original work by the entrant.

• Only one entry per student.

• We aim to exhibit all entries during the spring semester. Due to the size of our exhibit cases, if we receive more than 50 entries, the exhibit may be curated by the library staff.

• The winning purchase prizes will be added to the Fleet Library at RISD's Artists' Book Collection and thus will not be returned.

• Non-prize-winning entries will be returned at the end of the spring 2025 semester. 

Items not added to the Fleet Library at RISD collection can be picked after the exhibit comes down and before the end of the semester. If this is not possible please contact us to make arrangements.

The opening reception and award ceremony will be held on Wednesday, February 19, 2025 at 6:30pm. 

To be announced at the award ceremony in February 2025!

We're very happy to announce Roger S. Williams as the 2025 juror.

Roger is the head of conservation at Brown University Libraries and the John Carter Brown Library. At Brown, he oversees the care and health of all physical special collection materials: performing repairs, monitoring environments, ensuring safe storage and display, and educating staff, faculty, and students about conservation and material history. He is interested in peoples-based conservation, which centers communities and community values to determine decisions about cultural heritage.

Before his career in conservation, Roger worked for an NEA-funded collaborative program between a community arts organization and a housing initiative. He facilitated homemaking sessions with clients exiting homelessness and commissioned artworks to engender a sense of home.

In his non-career life, Roger is a practicing artist who uses painting, sculpture, and book arts to create playful works about human relationships with the environment. Roger has previously worked and lived in Chicago, the United Kingdom, and Central Virginia.

Entries will be on exhibit on the 1st floor and 2nd floor of the library from mid-February through mid-May.

All entries will be scanned and added to our online repository; the online exhibition will be linked here.

"In 2014 when I first started in Special Collections we began conversations about outreach and the idea of an artists’ book contest was born. The late Jan Baker, Graphic Design Professor, was one of the first jurors for the original contest in 2015. After the contest we debriefed and Jan asked what was the greatest obstacle for this contest to continue. I said money. A few months past and I was informed that we had received an anonymous gift so that we could continue the contest. I would find out later, it was Jan’s gift.

In Jan’s words, 'The aim of this competition is to encourage faculty in all mediums at RISD to use the Artists’ Book Collection as inspiration for their classes; in addition, for students to be stimulated by the collection to create their own Artists’ Books.' 

Starting in its 5th year, the contest was named for Jan Baker and Laurie Whitehill, the former Fleet Library Special Collections Librarian. This name recognizes their legacies and their combined 60 years of dedication to and passion in the field of Book Arts."

-Claudia Covert, Special Collections Librarian

Angela DiVeglia
Fleet Library Special Collections
15 Westminster St, 2nd floor, Room 201
risdspecial@risd.edu
(401) 709-4815