HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE 2013 NEW YORK ART BOOK FAIR
Last weekend, for four days (really three days and one boozy evening), a thousands-strong peloton of the hottest nerds the hemisphere has to offer trekked to Long Island City to descend on MoMA PS1 for Printed Matter’s eighth annual New York Art Book Fair, a cornucopia of zines; artist’s editions; hand-screened typography prints in editions that top out in double digits; dusty, out-of-print monographs; lithography manuals; cranky tracts; and pretty chapbooks. This year’s fair was fancier, more crowded (an estimated ten thousand bibliophiles elbowed their way among the vendors, who also exhibited in record numbers), and sweatier than ever, and featured more musical performances (both scheduled and improvised) in the courtyard and throughout the sweltering halls than in previous years. It was also noticeably more gourmet, thanks to themed food stations around the courtyard operated by the proprietors of M. Wells, the widely (and justly) praised restaurant concession that decamped earlier this year from a grubby trailer near Jackson Avenue to a new permanent home in the museum’s cafe. During the fair, M. Wells offered a broad range of fare, from sag paneer and a surprisingly adequate ramen in one corner to more-predictable smoked meat sandwiches and cubanos across the way. Inside, French 75’s flowed on tap, a nice accompaniment to a frisée salad garnished with a sunny egg and lardons the size of Jolly Ranchers.
And so, once again, amidst much madness and temptation of every stripe, we braved the crowds, spending several days intently browsing the seemingly innumerable covetable objects on offer across three floors, a large un-air conditioned outdoor tent and PS1’s perennially-dimly-lit, semi-permanent dome. Here are a few of the many highlights.
Deadstock artist monographs from the Marlborough Gallery
Marlborough, the venerable gallery that served as an anchor for many of art’s most important movements in the twentieth century, took over the lower level at PS1 to offer dozens of deadstock monographs at bargain basement (ahem) prices. Beautifully-bound and -printed (many with tipped-on plates painstakingly applied to colored pages), and sheathed in screen-printed, transparent plastic jackets, the books were priced to move: at five to twenty dollars a pop, why not grab a couple? All are long out of print, and most were in pristine, never-read condition. I came away with a gorgeous collection of images by Clyfford Still, a survey of “recent work” (circa 1972) by design legend Max Bill (shown at Marlborough’s Zurich outpost), and a retrospective on the work of seminal sculptor Barbara Hepworth. Volumes on Gottlieb, Henry Moore, Rothko, Paula Rego, and Pollack were among the many I reluctantly passed on.
Tauba Auerbach’s Diagonal Press
Auerbach, who has for several years now been a darling of both the art and design worlds, unveiled a new project at the fair. Among the tantalizing offerings from her fledgling Diagonal Press: a gorgeous folio of fonts designed by the artist (each derived from a matrix displayed on the recto of the print) and packaged in an oversized cardstock envelope, for $600. For those feeling a little less splashy, Auerbach also made available individual posters from the collection for $40; hand-bound books full of blazing color copies for $50; and beautiful, metallic pins for $20. The artist promises more fonts are to come, and, in a move that cuts directly against the current of contemporary art world acquisitiveness, the editions are open and unlimited. In that spirit, though she was at her booth every day of the fair selling her wares personally, Auerbach declined to sign anything on offer. (On Saturday, however, she drifted across the room to sign an edition of beautiful white and gold wall clocks she designed for The Thing Quarterly’s twentieth issue).
20 Geometric Abstractions in Red and Blue from Daniel Peralta’s Sketchbook, 1970-1977
Published by Public School Editions, a small press dedicated to the best in mid-century Israeli architecture and design, this small, painstakingly printed volume reproduces twenty “sketches for a series of red and blue paintings, using simple geometric shapes and containing interior voluminous forms giving the illusion of depth,” originally created by Daniel Peralta, a Chilean artist who emigrated to Israel in 1955, and whose “work remains relatively unknown.”
Carol Bove’s Manuals 2010
Copies of this rare and out-of-print board-bound edition published by Charles Harlan were up for grabs at the booth belonging to LA’s Ooga Booga, an independent bookstore whose wares are as eclectic as they are collectable. In deadpan language on beautifully laid out pages, Manuals 2010 presents instructions on how to recreate and install Bove’s trademark assemblages.
Erik van der Weijde’s O. Niemeyer and Superquadra
The Art Book Fair is a photo book collector’s paradise, and there were many superb examples on hand this year, both new and old. The wonderful Dutch photographer Erik van der Weijde was on hand in the dome, manning a booth dedicated to his own publications (printed and distributed by such reliable imprints as Rollo and Roma). After years of admiring them from afar, I took the opportunity to finally purchase two of his books from the man himself: the second edition of van der Weijde’s quiet, elegant ode to the juggernaut of Brazilian modernism, Oscar Niemeyer; as well as Superquadra, an archive of the residential blocks that line the meticulously planned streets of Brazil’s capital city, Brasilia.
