-------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------

The Sheffield Artist's Book Prize and Exhibition is open to makers of artists? books in any format and from anywhere in the world. The prize is not concerned with books about art or artists, but books as art. This year over 170 artists have submitted books from 22 different countries. Full details will appear on this page at the end of August.

The Sheffield Artist?s Book Prize is organized by and held at Bank Street Arts in Sheffield. As a hybrid Arts Centre, keen to encourage multi-disciplinary work, artist?s books are a natural area of interest for those involved in the organization. The Prize was originally a response ... to the challenge to find an appropriate context for showing artist?s books and one that would fit with the Centre?s aims of innovation and inclusivity.

The idea of a competition was borne out of conversations with participants and visitors to the Leeds Artist?s Book Fair in 2008. Whilst there was no artist?s book prize in the UK at the time the aim was to do much more than simply create a prize or run a competition. Rather, the prize was more the context for encouraging visitors to the show to actually view the books on display and spend time with the exhibits rather than the cursory glance works frequently get within a gallery exhibition context ? so the decision was taken to make the visiting public arbiters and judges of the Prize with all visitors asked and encourage to vote for their favourite book(s). 

To encourage submissions all books submitted were shown in the inaugural exhibition and the policy was established of the Prize being free to enter. The first Sheffield Artist?s Book Prize in 2008 attracted over 50 entries from all over the world and several hundred people cast votes for their favourite book. The winner was Katherine Johnson, who in addition to the cash prize was subsequently invited to exhibit at Bank Street Arts and so the prize began to grow from its initial modest ambition into a way of establishing collaborative relationships with artists and linking their book works to other parts of their practice. 

This development was taken a stage further with the second installment in 2009 when additional prizes were added to broaden the scope of those contacts and the Prize itself. The Main Prize was retained in order to ensure that link between visitors and exhibits but to that was added a Student Prize and Special Jury Prize encouraging a greater range of artists to submit and leading to more exhibitions arising from the event. The second artist?s book prize attracted over 85 entries and many more visitors to the exhibition. The winners were Danish art collective Artrovert, while the Special Jury Prize was awarded jointly to Claire Tindale and Ann Rook and the Student Prize was won by Angie Butler.

In order to continue to develop the profile of the Prize we decided to make it a biennial event, allowing more time to prepare and follow up the show itself and to cope with the administration involved while retaining the policy of free admission.

In the spirit of sharing and handling books, which the prize seeks to foster, entrants are encouraged (though not obliged) to donate their books to our collection at Bank Street Arts. This is exclusively made up of entries to the Book Prize and is available for public view and shown intermittently in exhibitions and fairs. Donating books in this way has also allowed them to find their way into other collections (with sale proceeds going to the artists). Notably, Katherine Johnson?s 2008 Book Prize Winner ?Make?, was acquired by the Centre for Fine Print Research Collection at UWE in Bristol, while Claire Tindale?s Memory Loss was acquired by Tate Library, London and representatives from these two organizations now comprise this year?s jury.

With submissions to the Prize in its third incarnation now closed, there is every indication that both the quality and quantity of submissions has surpassed our expectations. With over 170 entries from 22 different counties, both this year?s exhibition as well as our Collection here at Bank Street promises to be a real feast for the eyes.