Broward County Libraries Division’s  

 

Bienes Museum of the Modern Book

The Dianne and Michael Bienes Special Collections and Rare Book Library (Ft. Lauderdale, Florida)

 

and

 

the Florida Center for the Book

 

are please to announce that THOMAS BRIAN VIRGIN is the 2006 winner of the tenth annual Florida Artists’ Book Prize:

 

Virgin, Thomas Brian

Right there / [Thomas Brian Virgin]

[Miami, FL]: The artist, 2006.

1 bookwork (in cotton carrying bag; 7 chapters – each chapter contains: 1 print; 1 scan; 1 digital photo; 1 essay); 32 x 25 x 4 cm. (closed)

 

[“This book is a tour through time and space, bouncing alternately through the artist’s head, Glen Arbor, and Glen Haven, Michigan, and the early 1960’s. Much of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore has remained unchanged in this span of time. Memories, however, may have become better with age. The book’s covers are basswood boards, which were planed, sanded, and tied together with leather thongs. The cover art is laser etched into the wood, front and back. The papers used are Thai Unryu, Arches Hotpress Watercolor 140 and 300 lbs. The book was created in Adobe CS2 and Adobe Pagemaker 7.0. The font used is Americana. “Right There” has seven chapters, and when closed and assembled creates a block approximately 10” wide x 12.5 “ tall x 10” deep. Each chapter contains content by the Artist. This book is an edition of five. The photographs were taken during a residency at Glen Arbor Art Association in Glen Arbor, Michigan at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in 2004. The woodcut prints, toy images, and book were produced during 2006. The essays are semi accurate accounts of the artist’s childhood.” –  “Number 1 of an edition of four.

[signed and numbered in pencil], TBVirgin, 2006” – Colophon]

 

The $2,000 prize will be presented to Mr. Virgin at the award ceremony and temporary exhibition opening that will be held in the galleries of the Bienes Museum of the Modern Book on March 15, 2007, from 7 to 9 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.

 

The judges for this year’s competition were: Ruth & Marvin Sackner (Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry, Miami, FL); Arthur Jaffe (Mata and Arthur Jaffe Collection of Books as Aesthetic Objects (Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL); and Jean Trebbi (former Director, Florida Center for the Book (Ft. Lauderdale, FL).

 

To view selected videos and each page of all of the artists’ books selected for the exhibition, please visit: http://digilab.browardlibrary.org

 

 

James (Jim) A. Findlay

Bienes Museum of the Modern Book

The Dianne and Michael Bienes Special Collections and Rare Book Library     

Broward County Main Library

100 S. Andrews Ave.

Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33301

 

954-357-8692 (office)

954-357-6762 (fax)

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www.broward.org/library/bienes_about.htm

 

 

Current Exhibition:

CCC: Civilian Conservation Corps (1933-1943): The New Deal's Depression-Era Ecological Movement

January 15-March 9, 2007

 

Please visit the virtual exhibition at:

 

http://digilab.browardlibrary.org/ccc.html