We’re looking for book art that is responding to the theme 'Blend' for this year’s Notts Book Arts Exhibition. The Notts Book Arts Festival is a biannual celebration of book art with an exhibition, accompanying workshops and a fair. The exhibition is going to be traveling a selection of public libraries in Nottingham, starting at Beeston library on the 28th of August.

BLEND, that could be 'to blend', meaning to combine two or more things in an attractive or effective way, like in: The old and new buildings blend together perfectly. Or: Their music blends traditional and modern styles. It could also be a noun, meaning a mixture of the same or similar things, like in 'a blend of coffee'; or a mixture/combination of different things: 'this granola is a blend of rolled grains, and dried fruit'.

Eligibility: We keep an open mind about what a book is. If you’re in doubt whether we can see why you regard your work as a book, please explain its 'bookishness' when submitting.  

You can submit up to three books. Due to the size of the cabinets we exhibit them in, they need to fit inside a 40cm cube when displayed. (We have very limited capacity for slightly wider artwork. If you have something that almost fits, feel free to submit.)

Charges: We make no charges to the artist, and work to cover the exhibition costs on our side. However, the artist will be responsible for shipping costs.

Sales and Commissions: This is not a selling exhibition. Information next to the artwork will guide interested visitors to the artist’s website. We do not trace and/or take any commission on sales that were made through the exhibition.

Please refer to the FAQ part and our Terms and Conditions to answer other questions you might have.

Deadline for submissions is: Sunday 14th July

Artists will be notified by the end of July.

Terms and Conditions

The submitting artist assures:

Submitted artwork is the work of the artist and does not infringe on anyone’s intellectual rights.

Successful applicants will be asked to submit a headshot agree that their photo and the images they submitted in this application can be used for marketing and advertising on social media, on relevant websites and in print (all in relation with the exhibition).

The artwork they are submitting for this exhibition will be made available to us from August 6th 2024 - January 30th 2025. And the artists agree on the books traveling between different venues.

Successful applicants will be send a book entry slip which they fill out and send to us together with their artwork.

This is not a selling exhibition. Value of artwork is entered on a book entry slip and is used only for insurance/ customs forms when sending the artwork back.

We reserve the right to not exhibit artwork that looks significantly different from the submitted images.

Work will be displayed in locked display cabinets in a library (with library staff on site), but will not be insured against theft, vandalism, and natural disasters. Artists are encouraged to take out their own insurance.

What we will do for the artists

All selected artwork will be exhibited in Beeston Library from 28th of August until 28th of September 2024 in Beeston Library. From there they will travel to other Nottingham Libraries (TBC). Due to different requirements at different places, we might not be able to exhibit all books that we select for Beeston at all subsequent libraries. 

We’ll clearly communicate where and when your book will be on display before it goes anywhere else than Beeston Library. 

All books and artwork will be handled with great care. We encourage artists to specify any special handling instructions on their book entry slip, and we will always follow those. 

We are committed to advertise the exhibition online and in print. 

Artists and their work will be displayed on our webpage together with links the artist wishes us to post (to personal webspaces and/or places where to obtain the artwork).

Artists will be clearly credited for their work by labels displayed next to exhibited artwork. There will also be a QR with a link to our webpage where visitors can look up additional information (submitted here) about the artist and the book and its concept.