Zimo Liu and Marlene Ma win sixth annual McCormick Library Bookplate Contest

Congratulations to Zimo Liu ’24 and Marlene Ma ’24 for their winning designs in the sixth annual McCormick Library Bookplate Contest. This marks the first time two winners shared the award.

“When you are presented with two outstanding designs that capture so beautifully this library’s place in the community, how do you decide between them?” explained Library Director Mark Melchior, who chose the winners with acting Visual Arts Department Head Jennifer Ho.

In announcing the awards, Ms. Ho and Mr. Melchior praised each artist’s distinct approach to the challenge.

  

“Zimo’s image describes metaphorically what books offer their readers—a fertile environment for cultivating knowledge and beauty,” they said. “Equally compelling is Marlene’s image of a shared experience of reading on the circle—evoking the community of readers we have on campus. Marlene’s image showcases her strong talent for drawing just as Zimo’s design captures his strengths as a conceptual artist.”

Bookplates appear typically in the front matter of a book (the first pages or inside front cover) in collections which wish to designate ownership—usually institutions and individuals with large collections.  

Groton’s student artists began designing bookplates for the school’s library in 2019. The first winning image was created as a linoprint by Sophie Park ’19, and each year since Sixth Form artists have been offered the chance to design the bookplate for the following year. The winning designs appear now not only in each of the recently purchased books but also are framed and displayed in the Schoolhouse. 

Each bookplate features not only the library’s name but also the date of graduation and the artist’s initials somewhere in the design.