Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL
Friday 13th and Saturday 14th November 2009
The international fair celebrating books by contemporary artists, poets, writers, composers, book designers, and their publishers; together with a programme of readings and talks.
We showed new artists’ books by Paul Laidler, Tom Sowden, Sarah Bodman, Iain Biggs and E F Stevens, and works from Burning Book Press, Preachers Biscuit Books, VSW Press, Mick McGraw, Imi Maufe, Tortie Rye, Gray Fraser, Savage and Tim Edgar. We also had the new Artist’s Book Yearbook 2010-2011 available.
ABC the Artist’s Book Club at UWE Bristol founded by MA student Lilla Duignan, showed books, zines and multiples by: Lilla Duignan, Angie Butler, Mavina Baker, Cath Fairgreave, Anne On, Natalie McGrorty, Celia Jackson and Alice Potter, and romance bottle top badges by Becky Adams.
The Small Publishers Fair also featured a beautiful exhibition ‘Written, Drawn, and Stapled’
From rgap.co.uk website:
‘Written, Drawn, and Stapled’ is an exhibition of some hundred American poetry books and periodicals covering the period 1965 -75, taken from the collections of John Janssen and Les Coleman. This post-Beat second wave of poets who congregated in New York City’s Lower East Side is known as the Mimeo Revolution – referring to the printing method employed in the making of these cheaply produced publications and where the poets themselves acted as publishers. This close knit community of writers, including John Ashbery, Frank O’Hara, Ted Berrigan, Larry Fagin, Ron Padgett, Joe Brainard, Anne Waldman, Aram Saroyan, Bernadette Mayer et al involved themselves in numerous creative collaborations and games. They also engaged artist friends of the time to provide cover images and illustrations. Amongst the books on display, there are covers by Philip Guston, Larry Rivers, Helen Frankenthaler, Ed Ruscha, Alex Katz, Jim Dine, James Rosenquist, and artist/illustrator Joe Brainard. In addition, there are numerous examples of cover artwork by George Schneeman who built his career around his collaborations with poets. Occasionally, these would be jointly published by artist and author. An illustrated catalogue accompanied the show.
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