Printed Matter Art Book Fairs are a celebration and critical platform for artists' books and publishing activity from around the world. Over the course of 4 days, visitors can attend dozens of free conversations, workshops, performances, and other artist-led programs. NYABF 2022 programs also include curated exhibitor projects, exhibitor awards, the Opening Night After-party, publication-focused exhibitions, our first ever Block Party, and much more!
The Classroom
This long-running program provides space for artists, writers, designers, and publishers to highlight new releases at NYABF and fosters dialogue around important themes in artists’ book publishing. NYABF 2022 participants include Rahim Fortune, Dominique Hurth, Eduardo Kac, Silas Munro, and Camille Norment, among many others.All Classroom programs are free.
The NYABF 2022 Classroom is organized in collaboration with David Senior, Director of Library & Archives at SFMOMA, and is hosted by Dia Art Foundation at 537 W 22nd St.
Exhibitor Projects
These are special publication-focused projects are presented by select Fair exhibitors, hosted by Printed Matter. This year’s projects include a collaboration between Thick Press and Post-Radical Pedagogy that explores themes of care work and anti-racist design practices; an installation with the artist and printmaker Leslie Diuguid and 52 Walker; a site-specific installation by the artist Alvaro Barrington presented by Karma, and more.Wall, Table, Lexicon: Publishing as Rehearsal
This project is presented by Thick Press and Post-Radical Pedagogy. It asks, how do we rehearse caring ways of being, knowing, working, and studying? Thick Press welcomes visitors to sit down at their table for ongoing goings-on and radical hospitality. They’ll be hanging out with co-conspirators from six publishing projects that exist at the intersection of care and social movement. Topics include: mutual aid organizing; friendship on Death Row; mapping social change ecosystems; radical approaches to helping; care as a site of inquiry; and healing justice. Post-Radical Pedagogy questions the design of curricular apparatus and explores alternatives to syllabi, grading rubrics, classroom conventions, and presence of authority. Reflecting on the wall with exemplification of the hostile and colonial aspects of administration in education, invited guests and passersby will generate content, which will thicken the walls as an act of on-site publishing and exhibition.During each day of the Fair, visitors are invited to special programming in the project space—check the daily schedule.
CABC: Re-Envisioning Artists’ Book Visibility
How do people find and experience artists’ books? This year’s Contemporary Artists’ Book Conference (CABC) brings together a group of international voices to discuss how visibility affects artists’ books and the community that surrounds them. View the full schedule of events here that includes programs with Maria Hupfield, Megan N. Liberty, Eva Para, Kameelah Janan Rasheed, and more.CABC has been presenting in depth talks, panels, and conversations to further the critical dialog surrounding artists’ books for 15 years. CABC is a long-time programming partner of Printed Matter’s Art Book Fairs. Sessions cover a range of topics from artists, scholars, and other leading figures in the field.
All CABC programs are free and will be live-streamed and archived at centerforbookarts.org/cabc.
The 2022 CABC is organized by a group of independent historians, art librarians, artists, and professionals in the field, and is hosted by Center for Book Arts online and at 28 W 27th St. FL3
Block Party
The first ever NYABF Block Party was on Saturday, October 15, from noon to 6pm! Free and open to the public on 22nd St between 10th and 11th Ave, the event featured a range of fun projects including music presented by Pioneer Works, food, a dance performance by PAGEANT, No School, Bushwick Chess Club, chess competition, Montez Press Radio, herbalism, mutual aid groups, workshops, Maggie Boyd & Molasses Books, kids activities, School for Poetic Computation, and more. Click here for a full list of participants & programs.The Shannon Michael Cane Award This award is granted to emerging artists (artists, artists’ book publishers, or collectives in the early stages of their career) who would be first-time exhibitors in a Printed Matter Art Book Fair. Each recipient is granted a complimentary table and an unrestricted stipend. Exhibitor applications were reviewed by a panel comprised of the founders of the Shannon Michael Cane Memorial Fund and Printed Matter staff. This year’s winners are FAR–NEAR, KWY Ediciones, Matarile Ediciones, and Revista Balam.
Volume Grant
A new funding opportunity for artists and publishers who identify as Black, Indigenous, or People of Color. Recipients are granted a complimentary table at the Fair and an unrestricted stipend. This grant supports the ongoing creative work happening in marginalized communities through assistance with production, travel, and other necessary expenses. This year’s winners are Brown Recluse Zine Distro, Further Reading Press, Kwago, and Taller California. The NYABF Volume Grant jury included Emmy Catedral, Gee Wesley, and Bilphena Yahwon.Monopolyo
Kwago, a publishing collective based in the Philippines, was a recipient of the Volume Grant, but due to unforeseen circumstances related to their visa applications, they were unable to travel to NYC and exhibit at the Fair.In lieu of their in-person participation, Kwago created a new interactive webzine, titled Monopolyo, which commemorates the 50th Anniversary of Martial Law in the Philippines. The zine folds into a dice, and rolls into a playful counter-narrative against the revisionist histories of the Marcos family and their allies. A game, a dialogue, a provocation, the zine maps out the Marcoses' ill-gotten wealth in New York through a game of monopoly.
On Tuesday, November 22, members of Kwago will led a hands-on workshop that teaches participants how to make their own webzine using the software Twine. Sign up here!
The Stage
Three days of music and performance took place on the roof of 548 W 22nd St and as a part of the NYABF Block Party on Saturday, October 15, presented in partnership with Ergot Records, Pioneer Works, and CC Collective.Friendly Fire A cornerstone of the NYABF, Friendly Fire highlights several social justice organizations and politically-minded artist publishers. This year's participants include 8-Ball Community, Visual AIDS, Press Press, Allied Productions, Inc., and Gato Negro Ediciones, among others.
The Friendly Fire section is organized in conversation with Printed Matter’s Executive Director Max Schumann.
An Incomplete History of Printed Matter’s Art Book Fairs
Offsite at Hauser & Wirth Gallery, 542 W 22nd St.Darling Green and Printed Matter present An Incomplete History of Printed Matter’s Art Book Fairs, an offsite exhibition staged next door to this year’s NYABF. Produced in partnership with Hauser & Wirth Publishers, the exhibition assembles a chorus of personal anecdotes, conversations, documentation, print materials, and ephemera to give a layered narrative account of the NY and LA Art Book Fairs since their founding. As a key piece of the project, a series of newly-conducted interviews and conversations with current and past exhibitors will shed light on the individual experiences that make up the collective history and life of the Fair.
Happening a few blocks away from the Fair… at the Printed Matter bookstore! (231 11th Ave)