Acid-Free Art Book Market (courtesy the organizers)
While the art book community in Los Angeles isn’t especially big, it is significant enough to dominate the 70 stands of the brand-new Acid-Free Art Book Market. The three-day event (of which Hyperallergic is a sponsor) will take place from May 4 to 6 and is organized by various members of the Los Angeles art community. These include independent publishers New Documents and DoPe Press, stores like OOF Books, and blue-chip galleries Gagosian and Blum & Poe, which will be hosting the events.
“We had all tabled so many book fairs over the years and I think many in the group had developed a sort of complex love-hate relationship with them,” said organizer Jeff Khonsary. Their hope was to create a “nonhierarchical” environment and “a financial structure that was not profit driven.”
According to organizer Nicoletta Beyer, the choice of describing it as a “market” rather than a “fair” was purposeful: “we are interested in positioning the focus of the event on the exchange between producers and their audience, both as creative and economic ecosystems.” As for the title, “Acid-Free” refers to the pH composition of archival paper; the logo, an infinity sign, alludes to the “Unicode symbol for acid-free paper … somehow promising that acid-free paper will never die.”
Expect to find finely produced catalogues alongside more conceptual, DIY projects. Among those with more unusual offerings will be High Desert Test Sites, a Joshua Tree-based nonprofit that has published books on topics like the “desert dating scene” to more serious ones, like humans’ averse effects on the desert landscape. And, based out of San Francisco, The Thing publishes only “objects”: for issue 33, Amanda Ross-Ho offered a handblown drinking glass intended to trap spiders.
There will also be your fair share of international exhibitors, including the famous Italian-based Mousse Publishing and the excellent Gato Negro, based out of Mexico City, known for its political and artistic manifestos of innovative design.
As is typical with art fair-like events, the Acid-Free Art Book Market will have special programming over the course of the weekend. Some highlights include a talk between curators Zanna Gilbert (of the Getty Research Institute) and John Tain (of the Asia Art Archive) on the history of xerography in art, and a “presentation of vintage marijuana growers’ guides” by Family Books.
When: Opening: May 4, 6–9pm; Friday, May 5–Saturday, May 6, 11am–7pm daily
Where: Blum & Poe (2727 La Cienega Boulevard, Los Angeles)
More info at Acid-Free Art Book Market.
