I just learned that my long-time mentor and art representative Bill Stewart passed last month. It’s sad news. I’m having difficulty processing it, then I feel guilty, because far closer folks to Bill have the full weight of that grief on them.
So I’m going to celebrate what Bill and his wife Vicky mean to me, and to the world of artists’ books.
Here are Bill and Vicky in an image from their website, standing in a sea of bookshelves and glass cases: their natural habitat until they cut back on show travel recently.
Here’s a 2015 article from Burnaway, about the Stewart family’s iconic and famous book arts showcase Vamp & Tramp Booksellers, LLC in Birmingham, Alabama.
My first encounter with Bill and Vicky was nearly accidental. Late in 2003 I’d sent an email query to the renowned Califia Books in California, asking if the owner was interested in representing new book artists.
I’d been playing with book art since the fall of 1996, but it wasn’t until January 1998 that I realized Yes, this is an enduring obsession. I want to make weird books for the rest of my life! So I searched for rare-book sellers, fine-craft galleries selling book arts pieces, online art groups, and book artists in the wild. I made books without any idea of how to sell them.
I wrote to Califia. And forgot about it, because my day job at an art factory was heating up.
On January 1, 2004, Bill wrote back:
Dear Ms. Crane,
My wife, Vicky, and I just acquired Califia Books. Thus, your query over Califia’s website has wended its way to us in Birmingham…
They were both interested in seeing jpg images of my work. They’d looked at the website of the Scottsdale, AZ gallery where I had been showing since the previous year, and wanted to know more.
I was slowly starting to understand that other people might like my weird books, too.
‘Continental Divide’ was perhaps my first political/social issues book, and one that Bill and Vicky encouraged me through the design and build phases.
Over the next 15 years Bill and Vicky Stewart boosted my confidence, gave me brilliant art direction and critiques, and let me loose to follow my odd impulses. They might not be able to sell some of the weirdest stuff, but they’d at least take a look at it. They talked me up and burnished my seedy self to art schools, university libraries, and private collectors. They sternly but lovingly talked me down when my head got too big. They were willing to write recommendation letters when I submitted applications to the Guggenheim Fellowship.
They convinced me to branch out from purely pretty books to books with some social and political bite. Every year, they sent out to artists and friends an Abecedarium letter of fiercely-hopeful and wonderful lists, the core message of which was always: Be kind. Be creative. Be human and humane. Do not give up.
I went from being an emerging artist to a mid-career artist, thanks to them. I went from apolitical to strongly political, in large part because they showed me how other artists could have a voice.
The Vamp &Tramp online catalog showcases thousands of book artists in all media. The special collections libraries of dozens of *major* universities have rare and amazing books because Bill and Vicky built a network of trust and enthusiasm with librarians and curators. Countless younger students, collectors, and other normal humans are exposed to artists’ books, because of the work that Bill and Vicky Stewart did with joy and grace.
I wish Vicky and the family the best in this trying time, and stand by whatever they decide to do.
But Bill, on the off chance that you are watching from Somewhere Else, I have a couple of stunning books on the drawing-board, and your name and Vicky’s will be on the inside covers.