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 team of RISD faculty members and professional artists serves as juror(s), selecting prize winners from the submissions. All purchase prizes receive a cash reward, and the selected student-made artists' books become part of the Library's collection. This year is the 6th installment of this program.

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 pasted 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 with the 5th year, the contest is named for Jan Baker and Laurie Whitehill, the former Special Collections Librarian. Recognizing their legacy and their combined 60 years of dedication and passion in the field of Book Arts.

Claudia Covert, Special Collections Librarian

Claudia Covert

Special Collections

Fleet Library, 2nd Floor, Room 201

risdspecial@risd.edu

401-709-5923

Grand Purchase Prize $500

• Keep The Family Together - Olivia Stoltzfus BFA, EFS 2023

Laurie Whitehill Purchase Prize $375

• 2019: 20-21 - Stephanie Wu BFA, Illustration 2021

Award For Innovative Materials Purchase Prize $375

• period note(pads) - Yukti Agarwal BFA, EFS 2024

American Printing History Purchase Prize $375

• Frankenstein Bicentennial - Marina Kishkovich Continuing Education, Graphic Design 2019

Librarian's Choice Purchase Prize $250

• Hedge - Jessina Leonard MFA, Photo 2020

Honorable Mentions ($100)

• Read From the Last Page - Yiqun Zhou BFA, Illustration 2020
• I see 112'07'' - Lindi Shi MFA, Printmaking 2020
• Oddities carousel - Yvonne Liang BFA, Printmaking 2021

We are very happy to announce that May Babcock is this year's juror.  

May Babcock is an interdisciplinary artist based in Providence, Rhode Island. Her studio techniques combine hand papermaking, printmaking, sculpture, historical photography process, and book-arts techniques, creating artwork that addresses place. She teaches and exhibits widely, blogs about papermaking at www.paperslurry.com, serves on the Board of Directors for Hand Papermaking Magazine, and is piloting Pawtucket Paper Center, a community papermaking studio.

You can see more of May Babcock’s artwork at www.maybabcock.com and @maybabcock on Instagram.

RISD undergraduate, graduate, and continuing education students are

invited to enter an artists' book they have completed in the past year

(December 2018 - December 2019).

The winning purchase prizes will be added to the

Fleet Library at RISD's Artists' Book collection.

• All entries must be original work by the artist.
• Only one entry per student.

 Look for the next call in Fall 2020.   Thank you!

Items not added to the Fleet Library at RISD collection can be picked up when the library reopens. We are happy to hold on to entries until Fall semester or mail your entry to you. Please contact us to make arrangements.