Open•Set 2025

OPEN • SET 2025 Competition & Exhibition

is an event in the United States featuring finely crafted bookbindings.

Sponsored by the American Academy of Bookbinding,

it is designed to encourage both new binders and professionals and is open to binders worldwide.

We invite you to participate!

As of December 20, the Set Category is full.
Open Category registration is available until July 1, 2024

Register Now

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

GENERAL GUIDELINES

 

We request that all submissions are made specifically for this competition; submissions that have been previously shown in an exhibition, online, or otherwise publicly viewed will be disqualified.
The binding design is the artist’s own unique interpretation of the book they are binding, reflecting the binder’s response to the content of the book.
Participants may submit bindings for either the Open Category, the Set Category, or both. Only one submission per category / per binder will be accepted.
All submissions must be a fine binding in the codex format.

Submissions Deadline is September 1, 2024.
To ensure anonymity, please do not post about the progress of your work OR sign or mark your work in any way.
Please declare any work done by someone other than the binder on your Submission Form.
All entries must be housed in a custom-fitted clamshell box. Please see Submission Information for specifications; OPEN•SET 2025 is not responsible for inadequately protected bindings.
All inquires should be sent to openset@ahhaa.org

TIMELINE

July 1, 2024 – Registration Deadline
September 1, 2024 – Submission Deadline
September 2024 – Jury Convenes
January 24 & 25, 2025 – Awards & Honors

 

Grand Opening Weekend

San Francisco, California

January 24 & 25, 2025

The weekend will feature the opening of the Exhibition, special programming, and Binder’s Dinner with awards announcements.

Please join us!

 

AWARDS

OPEN CATEGORY

First Place Prize $3500

Second Place Prize $2400

Third Place Prize $1200

 

SET CATEGORY

First Place Prize $3500

Second Place Prize $2400

Third Place Prize $1200

 

Highly Commendable Awards will be given to those bindings that display skillful treatment of an aspect of binding.

 

 

OPEN CATEGORY

  • Participants may submit a binding from a book in sheets of their choosing.
  • Blank books will not be accepted.
  • The minimum finished book size is 5 x 5cms; any submission smaller than this will be disqualified.
  • The maximum finished book size is 30 x 22cms; any submission taller than 30cms will be disqualified.

SET CATEGORY

  • The Set book for this competition is The Helen Fragments by Editions Koch.
  • Peter Rutledge Koch is the designer/publisher of the Set book. The pages were printed by Max Koch.
  • The Helen Fragments is a collaboration between two contemporary artists who have come together over an ancient text that has fascinated readers for millennia. The poet and printer Richard Seibert has selected portions from Homer’s Iliad that tell the tumultuous story of Helen of Troy and has translated them from the original Greek into a contemporary lyric. Winifred McNeill, a New York-based artist, is the illustrator for this project.
  • The book-in-sheets cost is included in the Set Category fee.
  • You will receive the Set Book if you register for this category.

 

FEES

  • The entry fee for each category is $135.
  • There is an additional Foreign Transaction Fee of $38 for addresses outside of the United States.
  • Once the registration form is submitted and received, you will receive an invoice. When your registration is paid, you will receive confirmation and your ID number. If you have registered for both categories you will receive two ID numbers.

ELIGIBILITY

  • All fine binding, codex format entries are accepted for jury review.
  • All submissions must respect stated size limitations (minimum: 5x6cm/maximum: 22x30cm).
  • Bindings must be accompanied by the fully completed Online Submission Form and appropriately protected in a custom clamshell box with ONLY the registrant ID number on the spine.
  • Bindings that are too large or too fragile may be disqualified.
  • No blank books will be accepted.

BLIND JURY REVIEW

  • A blind jury will review all bindings — the jurors will not know the binder’s name. Books will only be identified by the registrant ID number and will only appear on the spine of the submission box. If your identity is in any way apparent, your book will not qualify for review. (Please do not sign your submission.)
  • Coleen Curry, Samuel Feinstein, and Lili Hall Sharp are the three jurors for OPEN•SET 2025. Juror’s bio’s here.
  • Jury decisions will be made in September 2024 and are final.
  • The jury will decide the prize-winning bindings and the bindings that will travel with the Exhibition.
  • The jury reserves the right to return submissions deemed technically or artistically unsuitable or that do not meet the outlined parameters of this competition.
  • Jury decisions will be announced at the Grand Opening in San Francisco in January 2025.

 

EXHIBITION

  • The OPEN•SET 2025 Exhibition will be shown in two venues in San Francisco, the Open books at the San Francisco Center for the Book and the Set books at the American Museum of Bookbinding.
  • A Grand Opening weekend will be held on January 24 & 25, 2025, with programming and workshops and a Binders Dinner for all who would like to participate.
  • Once a work has been selected to travel with the Exhibition, it must remain with OPEN•SET 2025 for the exhibition year.
  • Entries selected for the Exhibition will travel only in the United States.
  • Ongoing details regarding the Exhibition will be released soon.

CATALOG

  • OPEN•SET 2025 will produce a full-color catalog of all entries meeting the jury criteria for the competition.
  • Each Registrant will receive a catalog, regardless of the submission outcome.

PUBLICITY

  • OPEN•SET 2025 will photograph and use images of all submissions for promotional purposes related to the competition and exhibition, currently and in the future.
  • Binders will be asked to supply 1.) binder information and biography, 2.) book description information, and 3.) a design statement in the Online Submission Form.
  • Permissions to use the above will be required at the completion of the Online Submission Form.

INSURANCE

  • Participants will be responsible for shipping and insurance from their hands to the jury site. Carefully consider the value of your submission; the amount is not a sale price but the cost of what it would take to reproduce the binding.
  • The maximum declared value for each submission is $2000.

 

Register Now