Publishing

For the love of books

Bluesponge

Sometimes, you go on a hunt for something but you return with something else completely. My trip to the Art Book Fair in New York was meant to discover how the Art Book people industry is embarking on the wave of digital publishing, roughly 6 months after the ‘iPad revolution’ (more on that one day soon). With the company of my Lebanese-candid-enquirer self, very quickly I realized that people behind the tables were NOT interested in talking about what they doing with digital books. Actually I realized they were not interested IN digital books at all.

Strutting through the first of three floors at PS1 filled with art book publishers (200 exhibitors) and more importantly, art books, a stunning world was laying bare in front of me. The feeling was like getting to the top of the mountain and having a sublime view suddenly appears with clouds, sun and lakes. The Art book fair was more than about books: It was about art. There’s all sort of publishers and booksellers and of different levels and quality but the objects lying on the tables and walls were simply delectable. With a strong international presence, especially the guest dutch design pavilion with its strong design signature, you could hop from an independent publisher screen-printing in his atelier somewhere in Berlin, to a japanese style shop with weird objects and related videos to a collector’s store in NYC selling old exhibition catalogues from Damian Hirst for 1750$.

The most striking thing were the infinite formats on display: fanzines (they were everywhere; Kevin and John, you should have been there), small books, objects, newspapers, photography magazines, regular art critique, unique prints, pop-up books, video attachments, posters, serigraphic art… anything you can imagine, and not. Funny how 3 months later I remember this thick photo book on Irak, printed on newspaper paper and that gave me a renewed sense of looking at the conflict there.

Print art books have taken publishing and printing to the next level. You don’t find many black ink on bound white paper -or what we commonly call a book- there; the design and print effort in almost each publication was as rich and enjoyable as any interactive experience you can imagine with a game of an immersive media installation.

Actually thinking about, the real most striking thing about that Fair is the passion that flew throughout PS1 (I don’t think many publishers here were ever made rich doing what they’re doing); it’s that romantic feeling of doing something purely for the love of it. I’ve come to realize that an Art book is Art in itself

Here’s a random collection of my findings. I suggest in the meantime you browse through the exhibitors list and click though on few things. That’s the best thing you could do while you wait for the next edition in November. And start saving.

Bluesponge Digital Media Index

The next 10 years

CH’s digital landscape

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