Saturday, July 17, 2010

Beautiful Books & beautiful baby!

Earlier this week, I visited the Anna Leonowens Gallery, which is an art gallery at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. There were two concurrent exhibits that I wanted to see.

The first exhibit was all the winning books of the 2010 Alcuin Society Awards for Excellence in Book Design in Canada. Thirty books were selected for the awards, chosen from 252 entries published in 2009, from 108 different Canadian publishers.

It was nice to see so many beautifully designed books all in one place. I especially liked one of the children's books City Alphabet by Joanne Swartz, which received an honorable mention in that category. It is a modern abcedarian using imagery and words captured in our urban landscape. A couple of the books in the reference category were among my favorites too. Living Proof: the Essential Data-Collection Guide for Indigenous Use-and-Occupancy Map Surveys is a gorgeous book. The title may not sound very exciting to some, but the presentation of the content is irresistible - even if you don't have a penchant for reference books!


I was disappointed to find that the winners in the Limited Edition category were not on display, boo! I would have liked to see those. If you are interested, there is a full list of the winners on the Alcuin Society's blog.

The second exhibit, was Tactile Notebooks and the Written Word. This was a collection of journals filled with all manner of text, image, object, etc, that were created by NSCAD students in a class where their goal was to "to heighten their sensory experience, expand understanding in unexpected directions, and deepen their artistic vision." It was fascinating to flip through these books and see and feel what each of the artists conveyed.


This visit to the Anna Leonowens Gallery was refreshing since I have been just a little out-of-touch with the book world over the past few weeks. Obviously, since I haven't added anything to my blog for over a month! Apologies for that. As some of you know, my little girl Mallory was born on June 20th so she has been distracting me! As we settle into a new routine, I plan to get back into my bookbinding studio occasionally.

Introducing Mallory! Born June 20, 2010

16 comments:

KarleighJae said...

Congrats on the little one! She's adorable!

Anna Mavromatis said...

Mallory is beautiful! Congratulations!

Lotus said...

Congratulations! And welcome beautiful Mallory!
Lotus

Deb C said...

What a sweetie! We can certainly forgive your blog absence, but I do hope you find some "me-time" to create someday soon. Enjoy these precious days and time with your new family member.

Sarah Coggrave said...

What a gorgeous little girl! Congratulations :-)

Sarah x

Acornmoon said...

Congratulations on the birth of your daughter ;-)

MyHandboundBooks said...

Thank you all!!

High On Craft said...

Congratulations Rhonda! Mallory is a little angel.

Lizzie said...

Interesting post about the books...
Mallory is lovely - congratulations!

Susan said...

Congratulations! What a cutie!

Velma Bolyard said...

welcome little one, and congratulations, rhonda, good work!

MyHandboundBooks said...

thanks, everybody :)

sandySTC said...

Congratulations, what a beautiful baby girl!

Yvonne Carlsson said...

What can I say that hasn't already been said... Congratulations, Rhonda to a new future bookbinder. :)

Billie said...

Hi Rhonda

Appologies for my neglect of your blog of late.

Many congratulations on the birth of your beautiful daughter Mallory.

Best wishes to you all

Billie :)

MyHandboundBooks said...

Thank you, sandy and yvonne!

And thank you, Billie. No need to apologize for neglecting my blog - I've been neglecting it too!!