Priscilla A. Spitler

Smithville, Texas
Spitler received degrees in Printmaking from California College of Arts & Crafts and in Craft Bookbinding from London College of Printing. She was bookbinder at the Palace Print Shop at the Museum of New Mexico in Santa Fe and studied at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas in Austin, Texas. In 1995, after eight years at BookLab, Spitler established her own studio, Hands On Bookbinding in Austin.

Winner: Award for Excellence in Fine Binding

Example Binding: 
Paula Hocks. 
Etruscan Lunches.
Santa Fe, New Mexico: The Running Woman Press, 1979.

Bound in a laminated case construction in full goatskin. Cut outs and recesses in the boards show fragments of the poem from the book, "negative" foil stamped on leather. Endpapers are decorated by the binder using paste paper techniques stamped with colored foils.

Design Description: 
Ulysses will be bound in a laminated case construction covered in two colors of warm green Harmatan goatskin. The binding will feature cut outs and recesses that reveal selected text from the book. A section of a Dublin street map will be blind embossed in the background. Portraits of the mythical and modern Ulysses will be inlaid in tan and rust leather lines on the front boards with Bloom's portrait modeled on Joyce's own image.