photo by: Sara Shepherd

Winners of the 2015 Association of American University Presses Book, Jacket, and Journal Show on view at the University Press of Kansas building, 2502 Westbrooke Circle.

In light of weekend developments on the basketball court, some Kansas University news readers might welcome a hyper-scholastic diversion to focus on instead.

I think this fits that category: a juried show of books.

It’s easy to get lost in the 2015 Association of American University Presses Book, Jacket, and Journal Show, which went on view Monday at the University Press of Kansas, 2502 Westbrooke Circle on West Campus. The nationally touring exhibit will be open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays through April 8 before moving on to its next destination.

photo by: Sara Shepherd

Winners of the 2015 Association of American University Presses Book, Jacket, and Journal Show on view at the University Press of Kansas building, 2502 Westbrooke Circle.

This is the 50th anniversary of the juried design competition highlighting “the best university-press publishing has to offer,” association executive director Peter Berkery writes in the foreword of the show catalog.

“Books can be beautiful things, and university press books can be exquisite,” Berkery adds. “It is a subtle and never-ending joy to explore these works of art.”

The focus of this competition isn’t on the research quality or the subject matter of the roughly 50 titles therein, but on the way they’re packaged. Judges weigh handling of typography, margins, header styles and integration of images for various categories of university-published books such as “Scholarly Typographic,” “Poetry and Literature” and “Reference.” For the first time this year, according to the association, the competition also includes a “Digital Publications” category.

photo by: Sara Shepherd

Winners of the 2015 Association of American University Presses Book, Jacket, and Journal Show on view at the University Press of Kansas building, 2502 Westbrooke Circle.

I’m sure design and publishing people will find some inspiration and feel at home. (For you typography wonks, one gem from the jurors’ comments in the show catalog: “Minion doing what Minion does. The perfect servant.”)

For the rest of us, even I can tell the same qualities that made these books winners are the qualities subliminally compelling me to pick up and flip through a volume about dogs in historical photographs (“Picturing Dogs, Seeing Ourselves” from Penn State University Press) or people who illustrate graphic novels (“Outside the Box: Interviews with Contemporary Cartoonists,” The University of Chicago Press). The books, even on subjects I’m not into, look that cool.

Not to circle back to basketball, but I also noticed — at least from a rough glance at schools represented in this year’s show winners — university book publishing appears to have powerhouses, too. To name a few, Duke, Columbia, Penn State and Louisiana State university presses have numerous titles apiece in the show.

photo by: Sara Shepherd

The University Press of Kansas, 2502 Westbrooke Circle on the University of Kansas' West Campus.

The KU-based University Press of Kansas doesn’t have any titles in this show, though it is an association member. University Press of Kansas publishes for all six state universities and, according to kansaspress.ku.edu, specializes in subjects such as American politics, military history and American history — especially “scholarly books that advance knowledge and regional books that contribute to the understanding of Kansas, the Great Plains, and the Midwest.”

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• I’m the Journal-World’s KU and higher ed reporter. See all the newspaper’s KU coverage here. Reach me by email at sshepherd@ljworld.com, by phone at 832-7187, on Twitter @saramarieshep or via Facebook at Facebook.com/SaraShepherdNews.