2015 MCBA Prize Juror Bios

Aaron Cohick

Aaron Cohick is the founder and proprietor of the NewLights Press, a small press focused on the intersection of printing, writing, and artists’ publishing. He is also the Printer of The Press at Colorado College, a letterpress studio that seeks to create a transdisciplinary space inside the liberal arts curriculum. He lives in Colorado Springs, where he co-organizes (with Corie Cole, Marina Eckler, and Noel Black) the Say Hello to Your Last Poem! reading/chapbook series, and serves on the Board of Directors of Mountain Fold Books, a non-profit gallery and small press bookstore.

Daniel E. Kelm

Daniel E. Kelm is a book artist who is known for his innovative structures and extensive knowledge of materials. Kelm enjoys expanding the concept of the book. He invented a style of bookbinding called “wire edge binding” in the mid-1980s in order to explore the nature of the book as articulated sculpture. Kelm’s experience with bookbinding began in 1978 with employment in the first of several production studios where he learned progressively more specialized traditional techniques. In 1983 he opened his own studio in Easthampton, MA, called The Wide Awake Garage, where he designs and produces artist’s books, interpretive fine bindings, and book sculptures. Daniel teaches widely, and founded the Garage Annex School for Book Arts in 1990.

His expression as an artist emerges from the integration of work in science and the arts. Before Daniel settled into his career in the book arts he received formal training in chemistry and taught at the University of Minnesota. Alchemy is a common theme in his book work. He uses the term “Poetic Science” to describe his exploration of the integration of science and art; visit DanielKelm.com to see his work and learn more.

Jae Jennifer Rossman

Jae Jennifer Rossman is the Assistant Director for Special Collections at the Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library at Yale University. She started at the Arts Library as the Special Collections Librarian in 2000. Previously she worked at the Library of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and in the Preservation Department at Brandeis University Libraries. She holds a B.A. in Art and Art History from St. Mary’s College of Maryland, a Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Painting and Printmaking from Brandeis University, a Master of Science in Library and Information Science from Simmons College and a Master of Arts in Modern History and Literature from Drew University.

At Yale, in addition to overseeing the collection development, exhibition and instruction programs, and the reading room of Arts Library Special Collections, she has been charged with revitalizing The Bibliographical Press in Sterling Memorial Library, founded by Carl Rollins in 1927. In service to the book arts community, she served on the Board of Directors for six years and was the Chair of the Exhibition Committee at the Center for Book Arts in New York City. Her invited essay “The Aura of Veracity in Artists’ Books” was published in the 2010 Grolier Club catalog Hand, Voice & Vision: Artists’ Books from Women’s Studio Workshop. Rossman publishes the Book Arts Essay series under her personal imprint, the jenny-press, as a means to contribute to critical literature about artists’ books.

An International Artist's Book Award