North Texas Daily

Michelle Tendai Bushe / Intern Writer

UNT Libraries announced a call for artist book entries for the bi-annual Artists’ Book Competition.

The competition is a platform for students, faculty, the Denton community and professionals to create and submit an original artistic book.

“It is the intersection between a piece of art and a book,” UNT Libraries special events coordinator Kristin Boyett said. “It doesn’t have to be a traditional book. It can be the artist’s interpretation of what a book can be.”

Submissions will be accepted the first week of December and a panel of judges will examine the entries at that time, Boyett said. The judges will then select a book and offer the artist a purchase prize for the entry. The artist will receive $400 for his or her book, which will be added to the Rare Book Room Collections at Willis Library.

Morgan Gieringer, contest judge and department head for libraries’ Special Collections, said she has specific criteria that she will be judging the entries on.

“I’m going to be looking for an artist who really used their imagination to come up with a new idea for what a book can be,” she said.

Boyett said the submissions in the past have ranged because it is an intentionally broad competition. There have been small books, large books, interactive books, books with no words, books with a sculpture on the cover and even a book in a steel cage.

“Frequently the books have pictures or they are a work of art in themselves so words are not pertinent,” Boyett said. “The sky is the limit.”

The Special Collections library highlights, preserves and makes available unique objects and works for students, staff and researchers, Special Collections librarian Courtney Jacobs said.

“Because of the competition, our artists’ book collection is incredibly unique and displays a lot of Denton-area artistic talent,” Jacobs said. “Submitting an object to the artists’ book competition is an opportunity to be a part of that collection.”

All entries will be displayed in an exhibit in the Willis Library forum for the public in the spring.

“There is no cost to submit an entry so we really encourage established artists and students to participate in the competition,” Gieringer said.

According to the entry packet on the Libraries website artists are encouraged to hand-deliver the entries to Willis Library, but artists are able to mail their entries as well from Dec. 2-11. The judges will deliberate shortly after all the entries are received.

Feature photo: Head of special collections Morgan Gieringer shows a book that won the 2004 Artists’ Book Competition. This is her first year being a juror for the competition. “I’m going to looking for something really creative and somebody who can real interpret what the meaning of a book is.” She says. Photo by Zixian Chen / Staff Photographer