A single saved collard seed connects the stories of two Alabama farmers. In the hands of book artists Sarah Bryant and Katie Baldwin, that seed became the starting point for a story about land, community and the people who cultivate both.
Bryant, a professor of book arts in The University of Alabama School of Library and Information Studies (SLIS), and Baldwin, a professor at The University of Alabama in Huntsville, created Small Patches of Land, an artist book built from the stories of Alabama farmers Margaret Ann Snow and Jean Mills.
The project recently won the 2026 MCBA Prize, an international award presented by the Minnesota Center for Book Arts to a single artist book every two years.
“It is a huge honor,” Bryant said. “We are incredibly proud of the book, and it means so much to us to have this recognition.”
Since 2005, Bryant has produced artist books under the name Big Jump Press, using research, imagery and physical materials to explore how information, places and personal histories can be represented through the book form.
For Small Patches of Land, the process began with a broad interest in seed banking and seed saving. The project also gave Bryant and Baldwin an opportunity to explore the place where they had each built their lives and artistic practices.
“Katie and I are both transplants to this area, but we’ve each lived here for more than ten years and are committed to our communities here,” Bryant said. “We show our work all over the United States (and internationally) and there are biases about the South in general and about Alabama in particular that we are trying to challenge and engage with by making this project.”
The direction of the project shifted after Bryant mentioned the idea to Snow, who operates Snow’s Bend Farm in Tuscaloosa with her husband, David. Snow had begun saving seeds herself, and a conversation meant to provide perspective on the subject instead revealed connections among local women farmers and a collard seed they had shared. Bryant and Baldwin decided to anchor the book in those stories.
The artists recorded interviews with Snow and Mills, who started the first community-supported agriculture operation in Alabama, and began shaping their words into the book. Snow’s narrative follows one growing season, from sowing to harvest in 2024-25, while Mills’ story stretches across decades, beginning when she inherited land after her father’s death and continuing through the farm she built with her partner, Carol.
Pages of different sizes help readers move between the narratives, while imagery taken directly from Snow’s Bend Farm connects the physical book to the land. Photographs of collards growing and flowering became laser-engraved printing plates, and microscopic images of seeds were reproduced through relief printing. The significance of those choices extends beyond what appears on the page.
“When you are holding an artist book that was printed and bound by hand, you can smell the ink, you can feel the impression in the paper, your hands are not far removed from the hands that made the book, the hands that inked the blocks and sewed the pages together deliberately to share a story with you,” Bryant said.
The work also drew on a creative partnership that began long before Small Patches of Land. Bryant and Baldwin knew each other before either moved to Alabama, then spent a decade collaborating as part of Shift-lab, a group of book artists. Their years of working together provided a foundation as they developed the project between Huntsville and Tuscaloosa.
Bryant brings the experimentation involved in projects like Small Patches of Land into her work at UA. New processes, materials and structures she encounters through her own projects make their way into the Book Arts studios.
“Teaching is a circle,” Bryant said. “I hope that the books I make help my students think about their own practice as artists, and I know for certain that when I speak with students about their projects, it changes my thinking about my own work. Just as collaboration deepens what we can do independently, teaching is also enriching. Information goes both ways.”
Beyond the Book Arts studios, the project is finding its way to audiences across the country. Small Patches of Land was produced in an edition of 25, with copies now held by the Birmingham Museum of Art, Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, Penn State, Swarthmore College, Syracuse University and Virginia Commonwealth University. The project will also be featured in exhibitions at The University of Alabama in Huntsville and the University of Arkansas–Fort Smith.
That reach reflects Bryant’s established presence in collections in the United States and internationally. Her work is held by dozens of libraries and private collections, including the Library of Congress, The New York Public Library and the Yale Arts Library.
Long before their stories became the foundation for Small Patches of Land, Mills, Carol and Snow were part of Bryant’s own experience in Tuscaloosa. Bryant first came to Alabama as a graduate student studying book arts at UA in 2005 and has known the women since those early years.
“In making this book, Katie and I wanted to celebrate the richness of our lives here and think about seeds more broadly,” Bryant said. “Jean, Carol, and Margaret Ann are seeds, creating community through farming and food. A book can be a seed, spreading information far and wide.”
With the MCBA Prize and a growing presence in collections and exhibitions, Small Patches of Land is carrying the stories that began in Tuscaloosa to new audiences, extending a project deeply rooted in Alabama far beyond the state.