The Sheffield International Artist's Book Prize

You may have read me mentioning before that I volunteer for Bank Street Arts. Currently I work on the Sheffield International Artist's Book Prize (http://artistsbookprize.co.uk/ 2013Prize). An Artist's Book is not a book about art, it is a book that is art.
Basically its art that has a front cover.
Even then, we also accept book art, which may not have a front cover, it may be an object made from a book, or at least have the concept from the idea of books.
This is very vague, but book art is well established so we don't get too many entries we have to send back.
Anyway the exhibition of the 455 books we received this year is now on at Bank Street Arts in Sheffield. I'm a bit biased, but its pretty amazing in my opinion.

What to do/ Wat te doen- Bas Fontein

Burnt out

What we have ranges from the traditional looking book, sometimes concept based like What to do/ Wat te doen by Bas Fontein, based on what people advise him to do to make money as an artist (even though he doesn't ask) to sculptural objects that hardly seem like books anymore, for example Burnt out (I cant remember who made this, but I will update with the name when I do).
I really love the fact that it is artwork that you are encouraged to handle.
The two main prizes are the Jury prizes, main and Student (judged by big people in the artist's book world, even someone from the Tate!) and the Exhibition prize which is voted for by visitors to the gallery.
The overall message is come along this October/ November, have a look and vote for your favourite book!