It was a very exciting week for pop-up book collectors, Paper Engineers and especially members of the Movable Book Society. Yesterday, the Movable Book Society announced the 2018 Meggendorfer Prize winners in three categories: Emerging Paper Engineer, Best Paper Engineering Artist and Best Paper Engineering for a Trade Publication. Pop-up and movable enthusiasts from all over the world gathered last weekend in Kansas City to witness the announcement of this years Meggendorfer Prize winners. So let’s talk about the winners of the Meggendorfer prizes!
Meggendorfer Prize winner: Trade Publication
The winner of the 2018 Meggendorfer prize in the category Trade Publication is Simon Arizpe with his huge and amazing pop-up title Zahhak: The Legend Of The Serpent King. We haven’t reviewed this beautiful pop-up book yet but from what we’ve seen, this pop-up book is something different and it looks very impressive. The story of Zahhak is a retelling of the myth about the misguided Prince Zahhak who is easily swayed by the devil to murder his father and usurp the throne. Zahhak contains artwork created by New York-based Iranian filmmaker and graphic artist Hamid Rahmanian. The combination of both the Paper Engineering and artwork make this pop-up title a true cultural manifest.
We have to wait for just a while before our copy of the Zahhak pop-up book arrives. There will be a full review anytime soon but the video above is just as great and the perfect introduction of this huge masterpiece!
Finalists for the category Trade Publication
You may already know some titles from this list but as you can see, the competition was very hard. In case you’re interested you can check out some of these amazing books in our previous reviews or order them online by clicking the Amazon link. Be warned!!! This might be your new wish list for your pop-up book collection!
| Paper Engineer(s) | Title |
| Kelli Anderson | This Book is a Planetarium |
| Rosston Meyer | Junko Mizuno’s Triad Pop Up |
| Keith Allen | What a Mess! A Pop-Up Misadventure |
| Yoojin Kim | Leaves: An Autumn Pop-Up Book |
| ABC Pop-Up | |
| David Pelham | The Raven: A Pop-up Book |
| Maike Biederstaedt | Creatures of the Deep |
Artist Book and Emerging Paper Engineer winners
The prize for this year’s Best Paper Engineering Artist goes to Colette Fu, known for her photo sculpture pop-ups. Colette has won the Meggendorfer prize for her wonderful creation named: Tao Hua Yuan Ji: Source of the Peach Blossoms. This pop-up design also competed for the record for World’s Largest Pop-up Book with an impressive size of 13.8 x 21 feet! Vanessa Yusuf won the 2018 Emerging Paper Engineer Prize with her book “Bhinneka Tunggal Ika.”
Upcoming pop-up titles
The upcoming month is also the big finale of a lot of new pop-up book publications! Amazing new pop-up titles that are not just a great addition for collections but also perfect as a holiday gift. We’ve got them all lined up for you at our Upcoming Pop-up Books list!
2018 Meggendorfer Prize for Best Paper Engineering – Trade Publication. The Movable Book Society presents the Meggendorfer Prize for Best Paper Engineering for the most outstanding commercially published pop-up or movable book at its biennial conference. The nominated book must have been issued in the two preceding years (January 1, 2016 to December 31, 2017). The award honors Lothar Meggendorfer (1847-1925), a legendary 19th-century illustrator and movable books paper engineer.
We’ve listed all (previous) winners and finalists in our Meggendorfer Collectors Guide. Check it out!
Image credits:
The Movable Book Society
Hamid Rahmanian
Simon Arizpe
Colette Fu
