Offprint London
The latest Offprint London event that was held in 2019 boasted 130 independent and self-publishers. Offprint began in 2015 as a one-off commission born from Offprint Paris. It states that the emphasis is not about book revival as much as the reclamation of independence and agency by artists to empower them to disseminate their own work. This is a common theme I have found with book fairs.
One publisher that attended was GOST Books who are an independent publisher based in London. According to their website:
“We pride ourselves on an uncategorisable output of diverse subject matter and design: from a chronicle of seven men claiming to be the Messiah; a study of Turkish soap operas; art works inspired by the largest breeding grounds for flamingos in the Southern Hemisphere; archive photographs from the Mexico City police department; to portraits of winners of state-run competitions in Belarus.”
Of note in particular are words such as ‘uncategorisable’ and ‘diverse’, which is I assume one of the main reasons that book fairs for smaller and independent publishers can flourish – smaller publishers often find a niche in more obscure titles that bigger publishers don’t touch, they do however need help in the areas of networking, marketing, word of mouth and dissemination.
Art book Fair London
The biggest art book fair in the UK. Showcasing art books and magazines, it describes itself as having ‘creative and cutting-edge publishers’.
One of the exhibitors at the 2019 event was Cactus Collective who are a group of artists that self-publish artists’ books and help each other with promotion and marketing. This approach enables them to retain a lot of their vision and freedom. Collectives are common fixtures at book fairs and this ties in with my observations about book fairs themselves helping smaller publishers in an atmosphere of camaraderie. It could be said that book fairs are the macrocosm and collectives are the microcosm.
Small Publishers Fair
This fair has an emphasis on small press publishing as the name suggests. There is quite an eclectic mixture of publishers who have been featured at this fair. This ranges from Dizzy Pragnell who is a print maker and book artist who makes books from vegetable and fruit papyrus to William Allen Word & Image who is a “Dealer in concrete poetry, visual poetry, conceptual art, artist’s books and ephemera; modern poetry; art theory publications and small press archives”. Diversity is another common thread that runs through book fairs.
International Contemporary Artists’ Book Fair
This is the longest running artists’ book fair outside of London. One of the most interesting features of their latest fair was Found Fiction. As they describe on their website, what they are about is as follows:
“The idea behind #foundfiction is simple. Writers send us short stories, which we print out, fold into envelopes marked READ ME, and leave in public spaces for people to find. When someone stumbles upon a piece of #foundfiction, it marks a special connection between writer and reader”.
This sounds like guerrilla book dissemination and democratising of publishing. By simplifying the process it demystifies the process which contrasts greatly with the amount of manpower and departments involved in a big publishing house.
The Sheffield International Artists’ Book Prize
“The Sheffield International Artist’s Book Prize is as much about finding an interesting format in which to show, view and celebrate artists’ books as it is about creating a prize.”
One of the winners here is Memory Loss by Claire Tindale which is a found photo album with the photographs themselves removed.
Dublin Art Book Fair
This book fair went ahead in 2020 in an online capacity due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The theme for this event was ‘design as attitude’ which looked at how design is approaching challenges such as climate change or the Covid-19 pandemic itself. This presents yet another common thread with book fairs, the capacity for activism and change.
BABE Bristol Artists’ Book Event
There isn’t much I can say about this event that I haven’t mentioned already. However, it is the nearest to my location so I’d be more than happy to visit it when things return to normal.
Researching these book fairs has revealed some common themes to me. Book fairs are very valuable for small and independent publishers because it allows networking and word of mouth marketing. Independence is very important for these publishers and banding together allows them to take a stand against big publishers and follow their own path, one of the most obvious examples of this can be seen in collectives, which is strength in numbers. Another way that these publishers resist being sucked into the big publishing machine is by finding niches such as obscure and diverse books. Activism is also quite a common theme of these books fairs and some of the publishers, perhaps being the underdogs can allow them to be bolder, less complacent and more willing to take risks? In the simplest terms, book fairs and the publishers they attract are very passionate about empowerment, democratisation and camaraderie in the book publishing world.
References
Represent. 2019. OFFPRINT LONDON 2019. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.represent.uk.com/blog/offprint-london-2019/. [Accessed 4 February 2021].
GOST. 2021. GOST. [ONLINE] Available at: https://gostbooks.com. [Accessed 4 February 2021].
Whitechapelgallery. 2019. London Art Book Fair 2019. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/london-art-book-fair-2019/. [Accessed 4 February 2021].
Cactus Collective. 2021. Cactus Collective. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.cactus-collective.info. [Accessed 4 February 2021].
Small Publishers Fair. 2021. Small Publishers Fair. [ONLINE] Available at: http://smallpublishersfair.co.uk. [Accessed 4 February 2021].
The Tetley. 2019. 22nd International Contemporary Artists’ Book Fair. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.thetetley.org/whats-on/22nd-international-contemporary-artists-book-fair. [Accessed 4 February 2021].
Found Fiction. 2021. Found Fiction. [ONLINE] Available at: https://foundfiction.org. [Accessed 4 February 2021].
Shefield International Artist Book Prize. 2021. Shefield International Artist Book Prize. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.artistsbookprize.co.uk. [Accessed 4 February 2021].
Temple Bar Gallery. 2020. Dublin Art Book Fair 2020: Design as an Attitude Guest Curator Alice Rawsthorn 23 November — 06 December 2020. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.templebargallery.com/exhibitions/dublin-art-book-fair-2020. [Accessed 4 February 2021].
Daniel's OCA Blog: Book Design 1 