A Documentation Award of Excellence in the Book category is given to A Dark, A Light, A Bright: The Designs of Dorothy Liebes, designed by Estudio Herrera and published by Yale University Press. A companion volume to the exhibition of the same title held at Cooper Hewitt from July 2023 - February 2024, it is the first monographic publication on the midcentury American designer and weaver Dorothy Liebes (1897-1972), a prolific and influential artist working at the center of American modern design across interiors, fashion, and corporate partnerships. Bringing together scholars, archives, and collections from across the country, the book features essays by authorities on Liebes’ work and pairs intensively researched archival materials and formal analysis illustrated with full-color, accurate reproductions of her textiles, showing the full impact of the colors, textures, and materials for which her work was renowned. Historically her work was documented in black and white, which did not did not do justice to her characteristically radiant work. Through its focus on the diverse community of Liebes’ collaborators and by returning Liebes to a place of prominence in the design canon, A Dark, A Light, A Bright admirably advances a more expansive and inclusive re-interpretation of American design history. 

Susan Brown and Alexa Griffith Winton (Editors); John Stuart Gordon, Emily Orr, Monica Penick, Erica Warren, and Leigh Wishner (Contributors); Estudio Herrera (Book Design); Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum and Yale University Press (Publishers)