Last evening two WU students were awarded "Nancies" for outstanding achievement in the book arts. The award is named for Nancy Kranzberg, who, along with her husband Kenneth Kranzberg, are longtime patrons of WU's Nancy Spirtas Kranzberg Studio for the Illustrated Book. While Nancy alluded to her kinship with "bad girl" Nancy of comic fame, Ken Botnick, co-director of the Studio, noted that she's better known here at WU as Our Lady of the Book.
The award winner in the graduate category was Rachel Dennis, for her book Spectacle Gazers. In the undergraduate category, Molly Brooks won for her two-volume work Sigurd / Brynhild, an illustrated edition of William Morris's The Story of Sigurd the Volsung. Two students also received honorable mentions: Mad Mohre in the graduate category, and Rebecca Leffell in the undergraduate category.
In her introductory remarks, Vice Chancellor for Scholarly Resources and Dean of University Libraries Shirley Baker gave a short history of the Studio, a collaboration between the WU Libraries and the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts. Ken Botnick then described a couple of new initiatives the Studio has undertaken this past year. In collaboration with the University's Island Press, the Studio has been working on a limited edition artist's book featuring the work of Willie Cole. The Studio and Press hope to continue the relationship by jointly producing one work per year. Also, in recognition of author Michael Pollan's receipt of WU's Humanities Medal, the Studio produced a limited edition portfolio entitled The Eater's Manifesto. Botnick presented a copy of the portfolio to Dean Baker for the Libraries.
