You can now visit the on-line gallery of work representing BookOpolis 2012!

Thank you to all the artists who made entries and to all our BookOpolis visitors.

Anders Sandstrom

September 21, Friday reception 6 – 9 PM, sponsored by Highland Brewery, raffle drawing for Beer City Prints
September 22, Saturday demos 1 – 5 PM

BEER CITY PRINTS

“Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder,” a quote by Kinky Friedman, sets the tone for Beer City Prints, a portfolio collection of 24 original prints by members of the Wood Engravers Network (WEN) and the Asheville BookWorks Co-op (ABC). The two groups collaborated on Beer City Prints.

To see all the labels and prints in the collection please visit tis Picasa web site – https://picasaweb.google.com/108681744921560423176/BeerCityPrintPortfolio?locked=true&feat=email

In June, wood engravers from across the US met at Asheville BookWorks to hold their annual weeklong workshop. In celebration of the art and craft brewing tradition in Western NC and Asheville being named Beer City three years in a row, WEN members designed 24 fanciful, intricately carved beers labels for the workshop this year. Last year, in 2011, the WEN workshop met in Two Rivers, WI at the Hamilton Wood Type Museum where they created an illustrated alphabet.

Following the WEN workshop, ABC printmakers developed the text and imagery of the WEN beer labels a step further. Inspired by the beer titles and label art, ABC printmakers created a context for each label including a bottle element, visual puns and narratives particular to each label and made an edition of original prints. In addition to the wood engravings, print processes include; letterpress, linocut, screenprint, collograph, sandragraph and white line woodcut. Neenah Paper, headquartered near Altanta, GA, donated all the paper for Beer City Prints.

Beer City Prints will be on display at Asheville BookWorks during BookOpolis, September 21, through November 30, 2012. In addition, examples of actual linocuts, screens, and other matrices used in each print process will accompany the work. The Beer City Print collection will also be exhibited at the tasting room of Highland Brewery, dates TBA. Highland Brewery is a sponsor of the BookOpolis reception, September 21, 6 – 9 PM.

John McWilliams

Beer City Prints was printed in an edition of 44 complete sets of 24 prints, housed in a handmade portfolio, 12 x 16 ½” for safe storage and viewing. Each contributing artist will receive a complete edition, another will be raffled on Friday, Sept. 21 at the opening reception of BookOpolis and another will be offered for sale.  The raffle and sale of Beer City Prints will benefit the Artist-in-Residence program of BookWorks Coop.

Raffle tickets for Beer City Prints are souvenir Beer City/Asheville postcards and come in three different letterpress designs by summer letterpress interns at Asheville BookWorks. “The stubs go into the raffle and the keepsake Beer City/Asheville postcard is a treasure all it’s own, ‘Collect ‘em all,’” Laurie Corral, BookWorks founder and director since 2004.  The 2012 Beer City Prints raffle winner will be announced on Friday evening, opening night of BookOpolis. Tickets can be purchased at BookWorks from now and until the drawing on Friday, September 21 and a link for online purchase: http://www.ashevillebookworks.com/store/

BookOpolis Weekend, Sept 21 and 22, is open to the public and is sponsored by Highland Brewery, Asheville, NC

BOOKOPOLIS 2012

Friday September 21 6-9pm BookOpolis Weekend opens to the public. An estimated 75 artist books from regional, national and international artists will be on display. All entries received are on display over the BookOpolis weekend with a juried selection installed in BookWorks gallery to be on view through November 30. Tana Kellner from the Women’s Studio Workshop is this year’s juror and selected the theme, Editorial Content: Spine-Tickling Artist Books.

Sharon Linder

Saturday September 22 1-5pm

BookOpolis Weekend continues with letterpress, papermaking and binding demonstrations. The entire BookOpolis show remains on display.

Eighth Annual BOOKOPOLIS – BookOpolis is an annual event held at Asheville BookWorks showcasing handmade artists’ books. All of the events are free and open to the public. Asheville BookWorks has developed a national reputation as a fine book arts and print facility. Local and regional artists as well as artists from across the US and abroad submit work that best represents the integration of Concept and Craft; merging Content and Ideas with Creative Use of Materials, Inventive Construction and Technique.

BookOpolis is a unique annual event open to the public and offers a great introduction to Book Arts, Letterpress, Papermaking and Printmaking.

BookOpolis 2012, a Collassal Book Arts Extravaganza. Please download a printable copy of the prospectus or have a hard copy in your hand by mail. Simply e-mail (gallery@ashevillebookworks.com) us your physical mailing address and we’ll post it to you asap.

The theme, Editorial Content: Spine-Tickling Artist Books, was chosen by Tatana Kellener. Tana is the 2012 juror for the Juror’s Collection and her selection of BookOpolis entries will remain on display through the end of November 2012 in the BookWorks Gallery.

Entry Form:  2012 BookOpolis Entry Form

Prospectus:  BookOpPoster2012_Download_8.5×11_V1-1

Tatana Kellner, juror, is the founding member and Artistic Director of Women’s Studio Workshop, an artists’
workspace in Rosendale, NY where she is instrumental in helping artists publish and market limited
edition artists’ books. Her work encompasses printmaking, photography and installation and she is
the author of 22 limited edition artists’ books.

Poster and Prospectus design by Philip Bell.

Part 1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Z0piGVYXVc

Part 2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bv8fsF4ZVPg

And yet again, BookOpolis was an awe-inspiring event of art and people! Over 200 visitors enjoyed this fabulous 2-day event showcasing book arts, posters and prints. A video of this year’s festivities, a mini-doc, will be available for viewing soon.

The Annual Purchase Award was presented to Elsi Vssdal-Ellis of EVE Press, Bellingham, WA, for her book entitled, Fever of Matter [2]: Do Not Blame Pandora. In her words, “This book is a reaction to VanDeMark’s Pandora’s Keepers: Nine Men and the Atomic Bomb. His transformation of Pandora into the atomic bomb really irked me. Rather than focus upon the “nine brilliant men” who were responsible for the creation of the first two atomic bombs it [my book] focuses upon defending Pandora. Between the frames of the exploding atom bomb it simply assigns the true responsibility for the bomb to them.”

If you’d like to see the rest of the Curator’s Selection, a collection of 36 pieces from the entire group of 101 entries, you can view it on-line at Picasa Web, or view it up-close, in-person, at BookWorks Gallery through November 27th, 2011.

In addition, a full-color catalog of BookOpolis 2011 featuring artist statements and nine extra images of books from the Small Book Edition, entitled, Parallax, is available for sale.