Supported by Poetry Daily and the Virginia Arts of the Book Center, the Power Poems contest offers a prize of a limited-edition letterpress broadside created by VABC artists and an appearance on Poetry Daily’s internationally reviewed website. See previous winning broadsides HERE.

Grand Prize

30 limited-edition, letterpressed broadsides, created by artists at the VABC, and special publication of the winning poem on Poetry Daily (poems.com).

Contest Guidelines

Submission size: Two poems per submission. Each submission should have a separate entry form. Multiple submissions may be sent in the same entry packet, with appropriate forms and fees enclosed.

Entry fee: $15 per submission made payable to the “Virginia Foundation for the Humanities.” (The VABC is a program of the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities.)

Entry form: Found online HERE. For a printed form, send an SASE to: Power Poems / Virginia Foundation for the Humanities /145 Ednam Drive / Charlottesville, VA 22903. Submissions received without a completed entry form will not be eligible.

Eligibility: Contest open to any poet(s) living and writing in the United States who are not employees, affiliates, or students of Poetry Daily, or the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. Rights to works must reside with the submitting poets, though they may have been previously published. Poems must be original work by eligible submitters.

Considerations: No poem should be longer than one 8.5”x11” page in 12 pt font. Poems should be stapled together and submitted “blind,” with no identifying information in the poem and contact info appearing only on the entry form. Winning poems and honorable mentions may be made available online for a limited time on the VABC website, pending permission of the author.

Deadline: Submissions must be postmarked by September 15, 2012.

Notification: Winners will be announced by January 2013.

Judges: Poets and artists of the Virginia Arts of the Book Center. Selections will be made on literary merit, engagement of theme, and potential for visual interest as a broadside.  Judges are poets whose backgrounds are in poetry, publishing, and book arts. Each has experience with nationally recognized journals, anthologies, prize committees, and annual VABC broadside contests.

This photo taken at the center of the Tughrul Tower in Iran. The tomb of a Seljuk ruler, Tughrul Beg of the eleventh century. Once capped with a dome, itself a symbol of the cosmos and the infinite, the sky seems a more perfect replacement to its missing roof. Photo by Matthias Blume.

Architects and dreamers have shared the VABC this month. Artists on different missions yet sharing a common geometric figure as the home base for their explorations. The figure of the circle. Rich in meaning, the circle can symbolize completeness, a line with no beginning or end. Cultures have also seen it as a symbol of the unknowable and undefinable, perfection, divinity, the sun, the creative force.

When man began creating his own shelter, the circle became the first idealized blueprint, inspired perhaps by the circle of family around the fire. Built of mud, stone, sticks, and skins it provided security as it invented the sacred space separate from the profane “out there.”

The Printmakers’ Left is the name of a loose collection of artists born in the University of Virginia’ printmaking studios and continuing as a creative collaborative for the past decade. In 2005 Charlottesville hosted an exhibition and catalog of their creation, The Land of Wandering. Other works by the group have included The Labyrinth, and The End of Language. Over the past year these artists set themselves a new challenge: an examination of Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges short story in which the circle figures prominently, The Circular Ruins.

The Circular Ruins tells the story of a wizard who retires to the remains of a ruined jungle temple to focus on his ultimate project. It is the creation of another human being through the power of his dreams. After much struggle he succeeds, but only by enlisting the assistance of the god, Fire. Being born of  the god Fire, the wizard’s creature is significantly and iconically immune to incineration by its flames. When fire engulfs the wizard’s refuge and leaves him unharmed, the wizard discovers that his existence, too, is merely the product of another’s dreams.

This story provides an axis around which the work of this group of twenty or so artists, the Printmakers’ Left, rotates. Their final creation is a 200 page  book produced in a small edition of 25. A copy now resides in the collection of the University of Virginia, but you can see an exhibition of the detritus of the book’s creation at the VABC now. “Unbound excerpts, working proofs, alternative endings, outtakes, and debris” is the description the Printmakers’ Left gives this interesting collection of pieces all framed identically and hanging like so many book pages upon the wall at the VABC gallery.

Circular architecture is also the theme of the work of artist Craig Pleasants. Pleasants has spent a great deal of his life as a sculptor seeking to understand the aesthetic and spiritual nature of the piece of architectural sculpture we call a home. Inspired at times by the fable of the “Three Little Pigs” he has built artwork/living spaces from a variety of materials including not just the wood, and brick of the story, but the straw as well. One of his most memorable works was a fabulous structure of straw bales and soil covered in blooming marigolds.

Laura Hoptman, sculpture curator at MOMA wrote, “Whereas shelter can be understood to imply a barrier against the harshness of natural phenomena…for Pleasants, home is at once a safe and private environment, and a world in which the organic and the human are in harmony.”

Not surprisingly, the earthquake in Haiti and the struggle to recreate homes for its victims before the onset of hurricane season became an object of Pleasant’s attention.  While monitoring the relief mission, Pleasants, an artist who unapologetically describes his work as often politicized, became obsessed with the history of the former French plantation colony of St. Domingue, what we now know as Haiti.

Digging deeper into the complicated social, economic, and cultural history he discovered a country created over centuries by repeated racial exploitation and european colonial struggles. His research revealed a surprising connection between Virginia and St. Domingue. St. Domingue owed its economic life, much as our state honoring the virgin queen, to an exploitive plantation system based upon human slavery. St. Domingue was the home of the most successful slave rebellion in the western hemisphere leading to the abolition of slavery there and the creation of the state of Haiti. Horrified that this might spread, our young nation, through the offices of President George Washington and Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson sent three-quarters of a million eighteenth-century dollars to the landowners of St. Domingue to provide arms and support to repress the rebellion and guarantee the continued oppression of thousands.

When Pleasants learned that it was eventually another financial gift sponsored by George Washington which made possible the creation of Washington and Lee University, the need to make a political statement, a proclamation, became imperative.

He put his proclamation in words as:

“In the name of God, amen, I George Washington of Mount Vernon—a citizen of the United States, and one-time President of the same, having remained silent for these two hundred and eighty years, do on this 22nd day of February in the year 2012, in consideration for my actions while President of the United States in support of the French Planters of St. Domingue in their efforts to suppress the slave rebellion of 1791 which resulted, twelve years later, in the liberated nation of Haiti, now most solemnly entreat and enjoin the Trustees of Washington and Lee University, in the County of Rockbridge, in the Commonwealth of Virginia, to take my original gift of $20,000 to their institution and pass it to the people of Haiti in a fashion that ameliorates the suffering of those still homeless two years after the devastating earthquake of 2010. It is my ardent wish that this be accomplished without undue delay, notwithstanding the necessary assurances of due diligence.”

Pleasants and I met this last February in Amherst at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Hearing about the work of the Virginia Arts of the Book Center, he became inspired to make his proclamation a real living object as a cornerstone of a planned exhibition at Washington and Lee’s Staniar Gallery.

Pleasants visited the VABC and decide to print his proclamation from our fabulous collection of wooden type. The VABC has no presses large enough to hold all of the wooden type that would be needed to print the proclamation. So the artist improvised, creating his own press bed from a huge piece of perfectly flat medium density fiberboard. After composing and “locking up” the wooden type on his bed, Pleasants planned to print his piece on the largest piece of paper he could find using an inked brayer and hand rubbing.

It was a work monumental in commission as it was in size. Pleasants and his remarkable assistants (his lovely wife Sheila and daughter Margo) made numerous trips to the VABC to accomplish this work.

To date, it is the largest piece ever printed at the VABC!

Providing space for the accomplishment of Pleasant’s political proclamation of what is right as well as the exhibition of the Printmakers’ Left has enlivened the VABC this spring. And whether dreaming of what cannot be or what should be, printmakers have made surprising discoveries about the circle and its iconic meanings at the VABC!

May 1 – May 31

Thursday, May 17 – 6PM, Live reading of Borges’s “The Circular Ruins” by storyteller Browning Porter, followed by refreshments and discussion. (Bring a circular snack to share.)

VABC welcomes “The Circular Ruins” to the Art on Ivy Gallery, installed by VABC gallery curator Dean Dass.

Based on a short story from 1942 by Jorge Luis Borges, The Circular Ruins is the sixth annual publication from The Printmakers Left, and that group’s first bound publication. The present exhibition includes unbound excerpts, working proofs, alternative endings, out-takes and debris. An evolving group of faculty, students, visiting artists, alumni and friends are involved in The Printmakers Left projects. Past projects have included The Labyrinth and The End of Language. 

The Circular Ruins was a project of some eighteen months, and has resulted in a bound volume of prints, poems and prose of about 200 pages.  The edition is 25. 1/25 is in Special Collections, University of Virginia. The work on this project was collaborative in that on many pages two, three or more participants have worked together.  Many diverse printing technologies were employed, including etching, lithography, letterpress, screen-printing, and inkjet.  These media are layered throughout the leaves of the book, and constitute a veritable history of means and expression. Some pages were sanded down; others were stained. Some pages were scorched rather than inked and printed. Yet this constructed history of collaboration provides only one approach to the many layers of allegory in Borges’ story “The Circular Ruins.”  For in the end of the story, Borges’ protagonist, who would dream into existence another human, discovers that he himself is already but the dream of another.

Participants:  Adam Wolpa, Akemi Ohira Rollando, Alan Harmon,  Anne Beck, Bogdan Achimescu, Chris Pace, Chris Thomas, David Bendernagel, David Swan, Dean Dass, Debra Fabrizzi, Eleanor Hanson, Elizabeth Stark, John Leahy, Justin Quinn,  Ken Wood, Lisa Russ Spaar, Maggie Booth, Robert Glasgow,  Roland Lusk, Sanghee Yoo, Sarah Marshall, and Thomas Doran.

Reckonings: A show by VABC Member Jesse Wells, May 4th-May 28 the New Dominion Bookshop
Opening Reception: Friday, May 4, 2012, 5:30-7:30pm

April 28 through June 2

Virginia Arts of the Book Center
2125 Ivy Road (Ivy Road Shopping Center)
6 Saturdays, 10:00 AM-12:00 Noon

Instructor: Josef Beery

Tuition: $500 (Member and Nonmember price, UVa Education Benefit Eligible)
VABC Members not using Education Benefit receive $50 discount ($450)

Contact kmcfadden@virginia.edu for inquiries and registration.

In this Design Certification Course students will receive a strong introduction to typography and design for print. The course will be held in the Virginia Arts of the Book Center, home to a letterpress printing laboratory with hundreds of cases of wood and metal type. The course will outline the history of printing, type design, and book production. Students will learn the basics of design for the printed page through hands on work. Students will use conventional page layout software on their own desktop computers to complete assignments in the design of posters, brochures, magazine articles, and books. At the completion of the course students will receive a certificate of mastery in “Design with Type.”

Schedule:

April 28 Hands-on exploration of typographic and printing history.

May 5 Introduction to the letter form and traditional type families. Assignment: Poster

May 12 Introduction to basic principles of type composition. Assignment: Brochure

May 19 Use of color and images in layout. Assignment: Magazine Article

May 26 Design of the book. Assignment: Booklet

June 2 Printing and binding techniques in the digital age.

Instructor:

The Japanese Woodblock Printing or Moku Hanga process is as beautiful as the prints it produces.  In an age of getting-it-done-yesterday-everything-all-the-time-prefabulousness, a process that lets you slow down and reconnect with natural materials and work with your hands is invaluable. It also offers the portability of any flat surface and does not require a press.  The process satisfies both the need for sculpting in three dimensions (block carving) and producing two dimensional imagery (printing).  In this two day workshop, students will learn how the Japanese pulled masterful prints using only a block of wood, a bit of rice paste, and a bit of pigment.  Students will learn carving techniques and a light history of Edo era printing on the first day.  After carving the block at home for a week, students will learn printing techniques on the second and last day.  Experience the beauty of this water based printing technique and take home your own hand carved block as well as an edition of sumi ink prints.
Contact: kmcfadden@virginia.edu for inquiries and registration

SPECS and GUIDELINES:

• Bound book of a number of 12-page signatures (note change!) on the theme of a pocket reference or almanac (no fewer than five signatures, not likely more than 12)
• Each signature will be a concept developed by a team of no fewer than two VABC members (3-5 would be nice, a mix of letter-folks and visual artists)
• You will elect which signature project you join by suggesting a heading or joining a team under a current heading (these we’ll post on the website with participants under them)
• Projects and teams selected by April 1
• Examples of projects: Atlas of Secret Diseases, Book of Hours, Directory of Printers’ Maladies, Catalogue of Cancelling Cliches, etc
• First page of the signature would be a “title page” which sets off the following 7 pages of signature
• Margins and page template will be provided for reference
• Common trim size and paper provided (paper will arrive in April)
• Authors’, artists’ names will not appear in the pages but on a table of contents which will be the first signature
• A binder’s group will oversee production of 50-60 copies
• Pages must not be added to in thickness beyond chine-colle widths (no pop-ups or glued in trinkets that would compromise closing book)
• Each participating artist will receive one copy

TIMELINE:

March 1 – establish published webpage where topics are listed and teams can link up; each team must have ONE certified letterpress printer

April 1 – establish teams and agree on overall project title which will allow other words to be used if needed (Album, Almanac, Cabinet, Catalogue, Circus, Companion, Lexicon, Magazine, Miscellany, Museum, Peepshow, Pocket Reference, Thesaurus, Variety Pack) (Give it a fictitious author? Dr. Higgenbaum’s Almanac of Exploding Wonders) (Give it a number “12” for 2012)

May 1 – Maquettes /storyboards / dummies of signatures produced and shared at meeting and production begins

Sept 1 – All printing complete

October 15 – binding complete

Nov 1 – computer scans of spreads complete

November 9 (tentative Raucous Auction date) – all work complete!

TEAMS and THEMES

Join one, or start a new one by commenting on the post below – we will add it to the list below. If you’d like to join a team here, please comment on this post and again, we’ll add it to the list:

Atlas of Secret Diseases
Team: Nancy Kober, Michael Swanberg, Lana Lambert, Dean Dass

Imaginary Body Parts
Team: Laura Pharis, Barbara Payne

Six word stories (???)
Team: Addeane Caelleigh, Jnanam MacIsaac, Frank Riccio, Diane Ober [tentative, needs printer]

Bestiary
Team: Roger Williams, Lana Lambert, Melanie Lower

Manual of Cancelling Cliches
Team: Kevin McFadden, Jeff Pike

Love
Team: Dean Dass, Amanda Nelsen

Principal heads
Team: Dean Dass, Kristin Adolfson

Strange Adventures
Team: Dean Dass, Stacey Evans

Renewing Our Vowels
Team: Addeane Caelleigh, Diane Ober, Janet Eden

The Climate
Team: Dean Dass, Amanda Nelsen, Erica Goldfarb, Stacey Evans, Lotta Helleberg

Tragic Performance
Team: Josef Beery, Martha Mendenhall, Sian Richards, Jennifer Hoyt Tidwell, Kara McLane

Early Birds
Team: Rachel Singel, Garrett Queen

Prognostications
Team:

Phases of the Moon
Team:

Etc. (must include colophon or end note)
Team: Kristin Adolfson, Lindsey Mears

Tuition: $500 (Member and Nonmember price, UVa Education Benefit Eligible)
VABC Members not using Education Benefit receive $50 discount ($450)

Contact kmcfadden@virginia.edu for inquiries and registrationIn this Intensive Bookbinding Certification course we will master coptic binding, a “glueless” bookbinding technique. The course will begin with a paste paper workshop to create decorative covers for our books.    We will then cover everything from the importance of paper and grain direction, cloth and board types, stitching techniques, bookbinding tools, planning and measuring, sewing, and other bookmaking embellishments. By the end of the class, students will have a bookmaking vocabulary, two to three coptic sewn books, as well as the skills to create their own hand-bound book projects. VABC Certification for Coptic Bookbinding upon successful completion of the class.

March 27: Paste Paper workshop
April 3:  Introduction to tools, paper, bookcloth, thread, folding, signatures
April 10: Creating the covers, hole drilling
April 17: Coptic sewing – sewing on the bench
April  24:  Continuation of coptic sewing
May 1: Finishing work session, sharing, evaluations

See additional classes offered by the VABC