Printeresting is working serious overtime this week. On the docket Friday was the Editions/Artists’ Books Fair! The Fair is located this year at the X Initiative on West 22nd Street. The smaller space made it much more intimate affair than in past years- tight quarters led to close examination of the printed matter. It may have just been the layout but there actually seemed to be more booths than last year. The periodical publishers dropped in number (no Thing Quarterly, no Esopus this year) and the international print publishers went up in number, no doubt reflecting the shift of global capital away from Brown and Berkley graduates with keen ideas for experimental quarterly publications toward international fine print publishers. The other strange internal economy we noted was whether the publishers had bowls of free Werther’s Orginals candy, buttons or take-away print ephemera, but we could draw no conclusions from these observations (hello! Planet Money are you listening? Here’s your art world scoop!).
Lots of pictures and commentary after the jump.
While there was a ton of very cool stuff, below please find a assortment of some of the work and publishers that caught our attention and held it.
An interesting take-away by Walid Raad by Point D’Ironie. This was right next to the artonpaper table.
The Lower Eastside Printshop had a really strong booth this year.
Bywater Bros. Editions, Toronto
While it definitely has its own flavor (more younger/living artists, less blue chip, more experimental work), this year the E/AB had more overlap with the IFPDA than one might expect… a few of the same artists and some of the same trends (lots of bedazzled shiny at both fairs- mirrors and rhinestones for everyone!).
More Christiane Baumgartner but this time at Johan Deumens of The Netherlands. These are really great woodcuts.
Not sure of the artist but this was on the outside wall of the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop booth (more of their booth below).
Tokyo was represented at the Fair by Gallery 360° (pictured) and Azito.
Flatbed Press of Austin, TX had some beautiful new editions by Liliana Porter. This one is Situation with Dog, a photogravure with collaged toy (the dog is printed and the little man is the collaged toy). Charming and funny.
Just a little taste of the above-mentioned shiny-ness.
Unidentified cool stuff.
Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop
Talked with NY’s Purgatory Pie Press but didn’t think to ask how they got their name. Lots of cool books and, in particular, we admired some by Bill Fick.
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