Winning Entries & Exhibition Catalogue
for the International Students' Competition for the Gutenberg Year 2000 sponsored by the University of Applied Studies in Mainz, Germany.

Exhibition Catalogue
Students from around the world were asked to submit a book proposal with the title Love Letter to Gutenberg which would deal with the man, his invention, and its perspectives for the fu-ture. The title plays on the two meanings of the word letter—as both missive and moveable type. The only formal restriction was that at least one part of the book had to be designed to be printed letterpress in an edition, since the prize was the realization of the proposal in combination with an invitation to visit Mainz. An international jury chose three winners from a large number of entries from four continents. The full-color, bilingual catalogue features four-color photographs and brief descriptions of the thirty-eight exhibited works and essays by leading book arts teachers and working book artists. The catalogue is a visually dynamic, eminently readable and informative document, a snapshot of the development, five hundred years after Gutenberg, of the arts of the book in the hands of its newest artists. Clothbound in soft covers. (7.5 x 11 inches; 80 pp.)
$30

The Winners!
Books were printed in Mainz in the Summer of 2000 in editions of 500 each.

Body of Text
By Kelly Wellman & Madeleine Zygarewicz. With photographs by Xochitl Oliva. This lyrical text is a dialogue between the artists about their work with words, letters, texts, and a simultaneous and imaginary dialogue with Gutenberg. One part of the text, as conveyed by printing on translucent Japanese paper, suggests the disembodied voice, one that exists perhaps within the artist's psyche as she brings a text to bed on the press, questing, questioning. The other voice is, literally, embodied—handset blocks of text were printed on the bare flesh landscapes of the artists' bodies, then photographed. This haunting combination—the ghostlike paper sheets that bear one otherworldly voice and the daring, intimate sheets of skin that bare a second—is elusively evocative. Letterpress and offset printed. Unbound and layered photographs and text sheets with a thumbnail sheet at back for sequencing. Housed in a wraparound portfolio case of black cloth over boards. (10.5 x 8 inches.) Wellman and Zygarewicz were students at Mills College, Oakland, California, at the time of the entry. Wellman recently completed her Masters Degree in Book Arts at Camberwell College in London.
$70

See This Is My Body Press listing for an additional title by Wellman.


15 Juni 1999/ July 27, 1999: Love Letter to Gutenberg
By Daniela Deeg & Cynthia Lollis. This photographic travelogue in the form of a large format concertina is a collaboration between an American and a German student. Both travel to visit Gutenberg Bibles—one in Washington D.C., one in Mainz. Each side of the concertina contains one of the journeys. But with two titles and two colophons, there is no beginning or end, no front or back to the book. Letterpress and offset printed on sturdy Japanese paper. Self-contained concertina. Dual colophons in English and German appear on interior of folded sheet and include reproductions of postcards sent by Deeg & Lollis to each other concerning their travels. (40 x 27.5 cm closed; nearly 12 ft. long opened; 18 pp.) Students were enrolled at Lamar Dodd School of Art, University of Georgia, in Athens, Georgia.
$55


The Korean King Sejong's Letter to Johannes Gutenberg from the Year 1449
By Shin-Young Chung. A scroll with the King's letter to Gutenberg written in the Korean characters that Sejong had invented and which are still in use today. The letter imparts the King's great joy at Gutenberg's invention and his interest in the printing and writing cultures of all peoples. The scroll is accompanied by an information leaflet explaining the contents and historical background of the letter and includes the King's introduction to the alphabet which "consists of 28 letters. Their constructive abstract forms imitate the articulative organs and are based on the philosophy of Yin-Yang." This handsome and historical document is letterpress printed on a single sheet of rice paper in two colors. The visual effect of looking at the unfamiliar script is akin to hearing poetry recited in its native, foreign tongue—one broadens our seeing as the other does our listening and both remind us of the sensuality of language. Housed in a cardboard box, but the broadsheet is suitable for and well-displayed by framing. (60 x 39 cm scroll; 7 x 7 x 45 cm box.) The artist was a student at Hochschule für bildende Künste, Hamburg.
$40