"Graphic Passion" Catalogue Wins Design Award from the AAUP
New York, NY, February 2, 2016 — Graphic Passion: Matisse and the Book Arts, the exhibition catalogue that accompanied the eponymous exhibition which was on view at the Morgan from October 30, 2015 through January 18, 2016, has won a Trade Illustrated design award at the 2016 American Association of University Presses Book, Jacket and Journal Show. The show took place January 21-22 in New York City, and 37 books and 40 jackets and covers were selected for honors from 258 books, 3 journals, and 348 jacket and cover design entries.
Authored by John Bidwell—Astor Curator and Department Head of Printed Books & Bindings at the Morgan, as well as curator of the exhibition—Graphic Passion is co-published by the Morgan Library & Museum and the Pennsylvania State University Press. The publication includes contributions by Michael M. Baylson, Frances Batzer Baylson, Sheelagh Bevan, and Jay McKean Fisher.
Graphic Passion recounts the publication history of nearly fifty books illustrated by Matisse, including masterworks such as Mallarmé's Poésies, Lettres portugaises, and Jazz. It is the first comprehensive, in-depth analysis of his book-production ventures and the first systematic survey of this topic in English. Drawing on unpublished correspondence and business documents, it contains new information about his illustration methods, typographic precepts, literary sensibilities, and staunch opinions on the role of the artist in the publication process.
