New York Art Book Fair
It takes only a short stroll in the Internet to figure out that September and October are tightly packed with various book fairs around the globe. From Paris and London, to Brussels and New York, the art book market seems to grow like mushrooms after a long rain. Was it because of a dry summer with no events, it’s hard to judge, but the autumn/winter book publishing season definitely seems to be quite demanding. With all the love we nourish towards books and independent publishing, it’s difficult not being critical about the current state of the game.
From being a shy events for a niche of book-lovers, the art book fairs have grown to become a major cultural happening. Even though sharing the ideas, developments, historical insights and beautiful craftsmanship that underpins book-making is surely a great thing, maybe a more critical approach should be taken towards the whole idea of the book fair and independent publishing. This is precisely why the New York Art Book Fair is to be admired.
The ‘Queen of the fairs’, New York Art Book Fair is almost a historical event promoted by Printed Matter, a non-profit organization devoted to promotion and distribution of artists’ books and independent art publishing, founded back in the days by a group of acclaimed artists. Held from the 28th until the 30th of September, this year’s edition, as usual, was packed with events, exhibitions and talks, while allowing a long list of international publishers (precisely 283 of them) to exhibit their production. Among the events, the lucky visitors at MoMA PS1, could see three exhibitions of “individuals whose contributions have enriched the field of artists’ books”: “An Homage to Mike Kelley”, “In Memoriam: The Book Catalogs of Steven Leiber” and “In Memorium: the Publications of John McWhinnie”. If this wasn’t enough, the tireless visitors had the chance to participate in the Contemporary Artists’ Books Conference, a two day event focused on emerging practices and debates within art-book culture, with Lucy Lippard and Paul Chan as keynote speakers.
If the array of events offered by NY Art Book Fair didn’t quite fill-up the most passionate ones, don’t worry we will keep you posted on the next not-to-be-missed-but-not-that-incredible book fairs, which definitely still have a lot to learn from our beloved Long Island ‘queen’.
