An artistic highlight of the giant PRINT 05 & CONVERTING 05 exhibition September 9-15 at Chicago’s McCormick Place will be an interactive panel exhibit on the history and importance of book illustration created by the Smithsonian Institution Libraries, the world’s largest system of museum libraries. “Picturing Words: The Power of Book Illustration” in booth #7259 will be staffed by personnel from the Smithsonian Libraries along with exhibit curators and will present a schedule of local artists demonstrating different types of illustration. The exhibit features images from books in the Libraries’ collection, including children’s alphabet books, The Nuremberg Chronicle, works by William Morris, Redoute, Vesalius, and Vitruvius and trade literature. Demonstrations will include wood engraving by Chicago artist Judith Jaidinger, intaglio printing by David Jones and new approaches for illustration by instructors from Columbia College. Judith Jaidinger has made prints for more than thirty years. After graduating from the Art Institute of Chicago, she worked in commercial wood engraving as well as fine printmaking. She is a Fellow of the British Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers. David Jones, from the printmaking studio Anchor Graphics, will operate the Press on Wheels (POW) intaglio printing system used for school demonstrations. Chicago’s Columbia College offers four-year degree programs in visual, performing, media, and communication arts, including a graduate program in Book and Paper Arts. Art & Design department faculty members, Paul Vaccarello (Illustration) and Craig Jobson (Graphic Design), will discuss and demonstrate how students in traditional courses of drawing, illustration, typography, and graphic design use computer-assisted design, animation, sound, and motion graphics to develop new visual media to meet changing industry demands. Following its appearance at the show, the panel exhibit will travel throughout the United States, followed by a full gallery version, featuring numerous books from the Smithsonian Libraries’ collection, at the National Museum of American History in Washington. A website dedicated to the exhibit may be viewed at: http://www.sil.si.edu/exhibitions/PicturingWords/. Smithsonian Institution Libraries, the largest and most diverse museum library system in the world, forms a vital and integral part of the research, exhibition, and educational endeavors of the Institution. Scholars and the public may visit the 20 subject specific libraries containing over 1.5 million volumes and thousands of journals. The award-winning website, Galaxy of Knowledge (www.sil.si.edu) conveniently provides worldwide access to the Libraries’ collections through a versatile library catalog and is a portal to many digital rare books, periodicals and exhibitions. The exhibit is being supported by NPES The Association for Suppliers of Printing, Publishing and Converting Technologies and a number of NPES member exhibitors in the show, businesses and industry organizations, including Agfa Corporation, Automated Graphic Imaging, BookTech Magazine, Brandtjen & Kluge, D&K Group, Expo Trust Marketing Group, Flint Ink, Graphic Arts Show Company, Heidelberg, MAN Roland, PIA/GATF and UEI Group. “As the largest technology demonstration for commercial, package printing and converting and industry education forum in the world this year, PRINT 05 & CONVERTING 05 is the ideal place to showcase this exhibition and the power and beauty of print, with its opportunity to showcase local artists as well,” said Regis J. Delmontagne, president of NPES and the Graphic Arts Show Company. NPES and the Smithsonian Libraries will hold a news conference on Sunday, September 11 during the show to provide details about the project. For more information, contact NPES Director of Communications and Marketing Carol Hurlburt at 703/264-7211, e-mail [email protected], or Bob Kearns, Smithsonian Institution Libraries Public Affairs Specialist at 202/633-1522, e-mail [email protected].