Fifth Annual New York Art Book Fair Offers the Best in Contemporary Art-Book Publishing

NEW YORK, NY.- Printed Matter, the world’s largest nonprofit organization dedicated to publications by artists, presents the fifth annual NY Art Book Fair, November 5–7 at MoMA PS1, Long Island City, Queens. Free and open to the public, the Fair hosts over 230 international presses, booksellers, antiquarian dealers, artists and publishers from twenty-one countries, offering the best in contemporary art-book publishing. 

Philip Aarons, Chairman of the Board for Printed Matter, said: “The NY Art Book Fair is the premier venue to find what’s new in art publishing. While it has spawned a new generation of independent art book fairs world-wide, it remains the biggest, the best, and by far the most fun.” 

The NY Art Book Fair includes special project rooms, screenings, book signings, and performances, throughout the weekend. Other events include the third annual Contemporary Artists’ Books Conference and The Classroom, a curated series of informal conversations between artists, together with readings, workshops and other artist-led events. 

Artist’s Project 
Leidy Churchman takes over the lobby with a large set of facsimile book paintings on wood. Drawing upon the stacks at the Museum of Modern Art Library Library with friend and librarian David Senior, Churchman traces a unique and fetching portrait of artists’ publications from the last hundred years. 

Special Project Rooms 
Select exhibitors take over entire galleries: AA Bookstore with Bedford Books (London), Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI; New York), Fillip and AAAARG.ORG (Vancouver; Los Angeles), and Picturebox (Brooklyn). Andrew Roth (New York) exhibits a retrospective of PPP Publishing. Goteblüd (San Francisco) presents an exhibition of more than six hundred Riot Grrrl zines, with a working photocopy station. Werkplaats Typografie (Arnhem), the Dutch super-school, brings its entire student body to design, produce, and sell books while you watch. 

The Classroom 
The Classroom is a curated series of informal conversations between artists, workshops, readings and other artist-led events, with continuous enrollment for all fair-goers throughout the weekend. Participants include: Casco (Utrecht), f.ART magazine (New York), Golden Age (Chicago), J&L Books with Jason Fulford (Atlanta), Kodoji Press with Erik Steinbrecher (Zurich), Little Joe (London), The New Dreamz with Rose Luardo and Andrew Jeffrey Wright (Philadelphia), Onomatopee (Eindhoven), Roma Publications with Jo Baer (Amsterdam), Seems (San Francisco), Sumi Ink Club (Los Angeles), Swill Children (Brooklyn), Triple Canopy (New York and Los Angeles) and Alexis Zavialoff of Motto (Berlin), among others. The Classroom is organized by David Senior, The Museum of Modern Art Library. 

Contemporary Artists’ Books Conference 
The Contemporary Artists’ Books Conference is a dynamic, two-day event focused on emerging practices and debates within art-book culture. This year’s sessions address a wide array of subjects, including: experimental libraries, the so-called zine renaissance, fusion of art and design in typography, contemporary criticism, and new pedagogical approaches to the ever-expanding field of artists’ books. The first day of the conference ends with a lively pecha kucha, a rapid-fire event in which invited speakers have just five minutes to comment on an artwork. Full-conference registrants receive a specially commissioned book by Emily Roysdon, an interdisciplinary artist and writer who examines the intersections of choreography and politics. Roysdon’s book is a meditation on vintage photographs of the New York piers by queer photographer Alvin Baltrop. 

Featured Countries 
This year, the NY Art Book Fair celebrates eighteen cutting-edge publishers from The Netherlands, including a project room by Kunstverein Amsterdam (Amsterdam) and Witte de With (Rotterdam), together with a variety of book launches and informal presentations in the Dutch Pavilion. Other countries represented include: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Norway, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and United States. 

Antiquarian Dealers 
Exhibitors present collections of rare Conceptual Art, Minimalism, Fluxus, and the avant-garde from Japan, Europe, and North America. Exhibitors include: John McWhinnie @ Glenn Horowitz (East Hampton), Harper’s Books (East Hampton), Marcus Campbell (London), Steven Leiber (San Francisco), Sims Reed (London), Stefan Schuelke (Cologne), and others. 

Artists & Activists 
This diverse group of politically minded artists and collectives focus on the intersection of art and activism. Exhibitors include: Journal of Aesthetics and Protest (Los Angeles), GuerrillaGirlsBroadBand (New York), The Yes Men (New York), Bread and Puppet (Glover, Vermont), Center for Urban Pedagogy (Brooklyn), and Temporary Services (Chicago), among others. 

Zines by Artists 
A lively selection of international zinesters will represent independent publishing at its most innovative and affordable. Exhibitors include: The Holster (Brooklyn), Nieves (Zurich), Ooga Booga (Los Angeles), and ZINE’S MATE (Tokyo), among others. A special section of queer zines includes our favorites, from Original Plumbing (San Francisco) and Girls Like Us (Amsterdam) to PINUPS (Brooklyn). 

Limited Editions 
Printed Matter presents new limited editions by artists Rachel Harrison, Christian Holstad and Misaki Kawai, published on the occasion of the NY Art Book Fair 2010. Purchase of these editions supports the Fair, ensuring the event remains free and open to the public.

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