Printed Matter’s free annual New York Art Book Fair opened last night at MoMA PS1 and two hours in, I hadn’t even made it into the main building, still roaming “The Schoolyard” section. The giant tent right of the dome housed 60 small publishing crews of artists, photographers, writers and stacks, piles, rolls, vials of… printed matter.
The best thing about the free art book fair — aside from it being a FREE fair with BOOKS about ART — is meeting the people who’ve made these books. Some photos of the opening night are above. Spoiler: They’re mostly of the zines and zine makers.
Highlights: Social Malpractice — “homemade in Portland fucking Oregon” — have some great $5 zines, from Black Like Me (early writing of Jayson Muson aka Hennessy Youngman) to Sean Joseph Patrick Carney’s translation of Baudrillard’s Simulacra, from English to American. Cinders Gallery is representing. So are Top Publishing from Amsterdam (BUTT Magazine, The Gentlewoman) and the trans male quarterly Original Plumbing. And look at all of artist Noah Lyon‘s stuff! Mike D was particularly into his book using Black Flag flyers. I got more buttons (7 for $10). “I Hate All Bands” is a good one. I bought so much stuff!
Inside, the big boys like Gagosian Gallery or Art in America are offering big discounts for very, very expensive items, but The Thing Quarterly is selling David Shrigley posters for $20 dollars! Touching their James Franco Brad Renfro Forever switchblade is free. Touched it. If you’re bored with that one book you bought, you can trade it at the “A Book for a Book” table with Petra Kohle and Nicolas Vermot Petit-Outenin. And Badlands Unlimited (rare books, e-books) have hashtag engraved dogtags by Petra Cortright. These are very #new. I could almost afford one. I’m coming back this weekend. You should come. Art books. Fuck yeah. (Photos: Marina Galperina/ANIMALNewYork)
