MINNESOTA BOOK ARTIST AWARD

MCBA CONGRATULATES PAULETTE MYERS-RICH,
WINNER OF THE 2009 MINNESOTA BOOK ARTIST AWARD

21st ANNUAL MINNESOTA BOOK AWARDS GALA
SATURDAY, APRIL 25; reception begins 6:30pm, award ceremony 8pm

Minnesota Center for Book Arts is pleased to announce Paulette Myers-Rich as the winner of the 2009 Book Artist Award, an annual honor of the Minnesota Book Awards. This honor, co-sponsored by MCBA and The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library, recognizes a Minnesota book artist or book artist collaborative group for excellence throughout a body of work, as well as significant contributions to Minnesota’s book arts community.

Myers-Rich will receive special recognition and an award at the 21st annual Minnesota Book Awards gala on April 25, 2009 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in St. Paul. Gala tickets are on sale through The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library's website.

Myers-Rich works extensively with black and white photography, with artists’ books being her favored format as they allow the combination of image and text in conventional and non-traditional book forms. "Contemporary book arts has given rise to a variety of structures that both embrace tradition and break with it," says Myers-Rich, "offering myriad forms and interesting challenges. Yet, regardless of the approach to artists’ books, for me, the practice of craft is important. The book must be a compelling and satisfying object or environment that activates content, a work that satisfies the hands, the eyes and the mind."

Myers-Rich won a Minnesota Book Award in 2000 for her fine press book Broder, an award she shared with poet Anna Reckin, and again in 2006 for Ghost Poems for the Living. She is an active member of several arts organizations, teaches at MCBA and several colleges and universities, and is a graduate program mentor at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. An exhibit of Myers-Rich’s work was featured at Open Book in Minneapolis, and continues at venues throughout the state this year, currently at St. Paul’s Central Library through April. 

The Minnesota Book Awards is a statewide, year-round outreach program of The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library in partnership with the Office of the Mayor of Saint Paul and the Saint Paul Public Library. Please visit thefriends.org or call 651.366.6497 for more information about the Minnesota Book Awards.