Hello SEGBW,
The Southeast Chapter of the Guild of Bookworkers is unique in that we are a relatively small number of people spread over a wide geographical area. Let’s get to know each other! In an effort to build connection and community we are planning to feature our members in a series of blog posts. We hope that through these articles we’ll learn more about each other and build stronger book working bonds within the southeast. We’re kicking it off by introducing our new Chapter chair, Sarah Bryant, currently living and working in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. If you would like to be featured, or would like to suggest that we feature another member, please reach out!
Warmest regards,
Kyle Clark, Communications Chair, SEGBW
Sarah Bryant
Sarah Bryant is an instructor and studio manager for the MFA in the Book Arts Program at The University of Alabama. Sarah started Big Jump Press in 2005, and since then has been producing artist books in small editions under that name. She often looks to reference material and analytical imagery when producing her work. Her books can be found in dozens of libraries and private collections in the United States and abroad, including The Library of Congress, The New York Public Library, The Darling Bio-medical Library at UCLA, and The Yale Arts Library. In 2011, Bryant won the prestigious MCBA Prize, an international award given every two years to a single artist book. Bryant frequently collaborates with other artists as well as people working in other fields.
Sarah studied book arts at The University of Alabama MFA in the Book Arts program from 2005-2008, and has been making books ever since.
Q Can you tell us a little bit about a recent project?
My last big project was an artist book called Figure Study, a collaboration with a Biology professor at Middlebury College named Dave Allen. We created human forms out of population data and printed them on drafting film so that they could be layered and interpreted on a grid. It was a fun project, but the binding was much more complicated than my other projects, and I almost lost my mind!
Q What are you working on now?
I’m at the beginnings of a new artist book project that I think is turning into something about urban planning. I never really know where I am going to end up when I start a project, and this one has me doing some pretty serious reading about 20th century architecture. We will see what happens! Right now it is still a primordial soup kind of thing.
Q Is there a skill you’d like to learn?
I am a letterpress printer, but I’d like to branch out further into printmaking and learn some non-relief techniques. I’ve started doing some skill sharing with collaborators that I work with, a really great way to pick up new tricks and move in a new direction.
