Programs
Over the course of five days, PMVABF will host dozens of live and pre-recorded programs including lectures, DJ sets, screenings, and conversations, led by artists, publishers, designers, musicians, and writers.
The event will feature longstanding Fair programs such as The Classroom, a series of conversations with artists and publishers, and The Stage, a diverse lineup of musical performances. For this online iteration, the Fair will debut a series of guided tours with special guests, as well as a new program series centering activist publishing practices by exhibitors in the Friendly Fire section, and more!
Programs will include an interactive chat section where you can ask questions and share thoughts. All events will be archived and made available for later access.
All Fair programs are free and open to the public.
Printed Matter is committed to making PMVABF accessible and navigable for everyone. Main Fair pages and programs will include:
Over the course of five days, PMVABF will host dozens of live and pre-recorded programs including lectures, DJ sets, screenings, and conversations, led by artists, publishers, designers, musicians, and writers.
The event will feature longstanding Fair programs such as The Classroom, a series of conversations with artists and publishers, and The Stage, a diverse lineup of musical performances. For this online iteration, the Fair will debut a series of guided tours with special guests, as well as a new program series centering activist publishing practices by exhibitors in the Friendly Fire section, and more!
Programs will include an interactive chat section where you can ask questions and share thoughts. All events will be archived and made available for later access.
All Fair programs are free and open to the public.
Printed Matter is committed to making PMVABF accessible and navigable for everyone. Main Fair pages and programs will include:
- Live captions in English
- Alt-text for images
- Archived programs
THE CLASSROOM
The Classroom program series—a long-running feature of our Art Book Fairs—highlights exciting new releases and fosters dialogue around important themes within contemporary art publishing and the broader community. This year’s participants include Dayanita Singh, Chip Lord, Dodie Bellamy, Fia Backström, and Amy Sillman. Organized by David Senior, Head of the Library and Archives, SFMOMA.
THE STAGE
A re-visioned presentation of The Stage will bring a multigenerational and global community of musicians together, with a full schedule of performances from NYC's Papi Juice collective, Qatar's Sonic Jeel collective, the legendary V. Vale of RE/Search Publications, the multi-instrumental mystic Laraaji, and many others. The Stage is organized in conversation with Noah Klein.
EXHIBITOR-LED PROGRAMS
Choose from hundreds of live and pre-recorded book launches, conversations, and other publication-focused events hosted directly on individual Fair Exhibitor Sites.
The shannon michael cane award
The SMC Award is granted to four first-time Printed Matter Art Book Fair exhibitors (artists, artists' book publishers, or collectives) in the early stages of their careers. For Printed Matter’s Virtual Art Book Fair, we celebrate the SMC Award recipients of the cancelled 2020 LA Art Book Fair: AVARIE, Berlin, Germany, Farside Collective, Leh, India, Hyperlink Press, Brooklyn, New York, and RANDOM MAN EDITIONS, Queens, New York.
Shannon Michael Cane (1974-2017) was a pillar of the artists' publishing community, serving as Printed Matter's Curator of Fairs and Editions from 2013-2017.
FRIENDLY FIRE
Amidst a distinctly precarious political climate, PMVABF presents a new program series centering publishing practices that address themes of injustice and resistance. This series features exhibitors in the Friendly Fire section, which includes presses and artists' collectives that take on different forms of cultural, social, and political activism. Programs include a tribute to Frederick Weston, a conversation on the abolition of the prison industrial complex with Mariame Kaba, and a cooperative skills-sharing workshop with Press Press and the Institute for Expanded Research.
The Contemporary Artists’ Books Conference
CABC is an annual conference that covers a range of topics with artists, scholars, and others in the field of artists’ books. Titled “The Temperature of Art Book Criticism and Scholarship,” this year’s CABC addresses the importance of developing new critical tools for assessing artists’ books and their broader impact on cultural and artistic practice. Sessions include Maddy Rosenberg (CENTRAL BOOKING), Levi Sherman (Artists' Book Reviews), Paul Soulellis (Queer.Archive.Work), Pablo Helguera, and Johanna Drucker. The 2021 CABC is organized by the 2021 CABC Committee and the Center for Book Arts, and is generously supported by Stephen Bury and Sorted Library. See full schedule and register for CABC here.
GUIDED TOURS
Throughout the weekend, visitors have the opportunity to experience PMVABF alongside curators, artists, and other special guests who will lead online tours from unique perspectives. This program series is supported by die Keure.
Opening Performances
Wednesday, February 24 ~ 4–7pm EST
Opening Bob Baker Marionette Theater, SAMMUS, and Melting Point presenting Deli Girls, Total Freedom, Hatechild., Mister Vacation, Dani Rev, O.D. Mongrel, F00d C0rps, Nullobite, visuals by VVXXII, protest photography by Andrew J Hallinan, and lighting design by Jeffrey Strausser, produced at H0l0, the premiere of the Fair’s theme song by RE/Search Publications's V. Vale and Marian Wallace, performance from Macy Rodman, and a LIVE worldwide gathering and drawing activity in honor of Jason Polan.
Opening Bob Baker Marionette Theater, SAMMUS, and Melting Point presenting Deli Girls, Total Freedom, Hatechild., Mister Vacation, Dani Rev, O.D. Mongrel, F00d C0rps, Nullobite, visuals by VVXXII, protest photography by Andrew J Hallinan, and lighting design by Jeffrey Strausser, produced at H0l0, the premiere of the Fair’s theme song by RE/Search Publications's V. Vale and Marian Wallace, performance from Macy Rodman, and a LIVE worldwide gathering and drawing activity in honor of Jason Polan.
Performances presented by Printed Matter and Noah Klein
Thursday, February 25 ~ starting at 12–2pm EST ; 24 hour loop
THE stage with Laraaji, V. Vale, Sarah Louise, Mutual Benefit, Yasmin Williams, Nailah Hunter, and Lush Agave + Wild Anima.
“Well, is it even a photobook, Dayanita?” with Dayanita Singh and Anshika Varma
Thursday, February 25 ~ 11am–12:30pm EST
THE CLASSROOM Dayanita Singh published her first artist’s book Zakir Hussain in 1986, and in doing so, challenged contemporary notions of photography, book, and form. Five years later, Steidl announced the publication of her student maquette as a three-part book object—a witness to her influence in expanding the book form. In this conversation, Singh speaks with Anshika Varma, founder of the publisher Offset Projects based in New Delhi, India, on the significance of provoking a space between the publishing house and the art gallery, and the endless possibilities presented within it. Presented by Offset Projects.
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Beau Geste Press, in conversation with Felipe Ehrenberg, David Mayor, and Alice Motard
Beau Geste Press, in conversation with Felipe Ehrenberg, David Mayor, and Alice Motard
Thursday, February 25 ~ 12:30–2pm EST
THE CLASSROOM On the occasion of the newly launching publication Beau Geste Press, BOM DIA BOA TARDE BOA NOITE shares insight into the practice and history of the eponymous publishing house. The program features two interviews between Alice Motard, the chief curator at CAPC musée d'art contemporain de Bordeaux and editor of this new publication, with David Mayor, and Felipe Ehrenberg, who are co-founders of this legendary publishing house. The interview with David Mayor was specially recorded for this years’ CLASSROOM. The interview with Felipe Ehrenberg was recorded back in March 2017 when Felipe visited a show on Beau Geste Press at CAPC just a couple of months before he passed away. Presented by BOM DIA BOA TARDE BOA NOITE.
Dark Room, with Phyllis Christopher, Michelle Tea, and Laura Guy
Thursday, February 25 ~ 2–3:30pm EST
THE CLASSROOM In 1988, at the age of 24, Phyllis Christopher was drawn to San Francisco with her camera to capture a thriving lesbian counterculture involving sex parties, kiss-ins, and street demonstrations. Join Book Works program for an intimate conversation about lesbian sexuality and documentary on the occasion of Phyllis Christopher’s debut solo publication, Dark Room: San Francisco Sex and Protest, 1988–2003 (Book Works, 2021). Christopher will be in conversation with acclaimed author, poet, and organizer (and contributor to the book), Michelle Tea, along with Laura Guy, editor of Dark Room. Presented by Book Works.
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Call & Response, with Kerry Ann Lee, Giulia Vallicelli, Helen Yeung, and Ysabelle Cheung
Thursday, February 25 ~ 3:30–5pm EST
THE CLASSROOM Call & Response is a conversation between international publishers exploring how independent publishing facilitates community-building through punk, protest, and zine-making. Giulia Vallicelli (Compulsive Archive, Milan, Italy), Helen Yeung (Migrant Zine Collective, Aotearoa, New Zealand) and Ysabelle Cheung (independent writer, Hong Kong) will share their work and talk with Kerry Ann Lee (Red Letter Distro) about collaboration, correspondence, and solidarity over time and distances. Spanning over two decades and three continents, the panel will discuss the responsive nature of zine-making, distribution, and archiving as a means of survival and creative resistance from the sidelines. Presented by Red Letter Distro.
Subject to Change: the Syllabus as Publication, with Collective Question
Thursday, February 25 ~ 5–6:30pm EST
THE CLASSROOM The syllabus is a utopian publication. It is asked for and given, and in this exchange it figures as a kind of contract, perhaps even a form of evidence, or a standard against which to measure progress. It directs, draws lines, outlines. It acts like a script, a score, notation, an aid to performance. It's revised each semester to pretend it did something that it didn't do, just in case someone checks, with a hope that this revised version will go the way you want the next time, so that what you thought could have been becomes real. It projects and aspires but is also fraudulent and knows it. This discussion with Collective Question (Chris Lee, Steven Chodoriwsky, and Julie Niemi) is based on their research into Tolstoy College, an anarchist educational community that was part of the University of Buffalo from 1969–1985. Presented by The Southland Institute (for critical, durational, and typographic post-studio practices).
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Best! Letters from Asian Americans in the Arts
Thursday, February 25 ~ 6:30–8pm EST
THE CLASSROOM Editors Christopher K. Ho and Daisy Nam will lead a conversation with contributors to Paper Monument's new anthology, Best! Letters from Asian Americans in the Arts. Chronicling everyday lives, dreams, rage, family histories, and cultural politics, the seventy three letters collected within ignite new ways of being and modes of creating at a moment of racial reckoning. The panelists will discuss Best!'s origins, how the project shifted throughout 2020, the intimacy and complexity of the epistolary form, and the urgency of moving beyond and exploding open the model-minority myth. Presented by Paper Monument.
Transcendent Waves Sound Bath, with Lavender Suarez
Thursday, February 25 ~ 8–9pm EST
THE CLASSROOM Join sonic healer, meditation teacher, and artist Lavender Suarez for a sound bath, dedicated to the release of Transcendent Waves: How Listening Shapes Our Creative Lives. In this new publication, Suarez poses questions to the reader as well as offers scientific evidence and personal anecdotes, all to make the case for the importance of listening and the positive impact it can have on our creative lives. Presented by Anthology Editions.
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Performances presented with Papi Juice
Friday, February 26 ~ starting at 12–6pm EST ; 24 hour loop
THE stage DJ sets by: Oscar Nñ, Adam R, Tygapaw, Equiss, DJ Cardamami, plus Mohammed Fayaz's Visual ASMR, and She Finally Caught A Breath.
Photography in the Sensorium, with Fia Backström, Pradeep Dalal, Shannon Ebner, and Sara Greenberger Rafferty
Friday, February 26 ~ 11am–12:30pm EST
THE CLASSROOM For the 2019 MFA symposium “Teaching Photographs” at Pratt Institute, artists Fia Backström and Pradeep Dalal organized a workshop in which they proposed “some . . . strategies on how to situate images by building context beyond representational pointers: presentation, discussion, and practical exercises.” To launch their new publication, PPI #2, Photography in the Sensorium, Backström and Dalal will be joined in conversation with Shannon Ebner and Sara Greenberger Rafferty. In this book, the artists offer examples from their own photographic practice as case studies, breaking down and interweaving their individual approaches to knowing, handling, and naming the circumstances out of which their work emerges. This is the second issue in the series Pounds Per Image (PPI), edited and published through the Pratt Photography Imprint, led by Shannon Ebner. Presented by Pratt Photography Imprint and Dancing Foxes Press.
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Media Burn Ant Farm and the Making of an Image, with Chip Lord, Connie Lewallen, Steve Seid, Tanya Zimbardo, Igor Vamos, and Doug Hall
Friday, February 26 ~ 12:30–2pm EST
THE CLASSROOM Media Burn Ant Farm and the Making of an Image is a recently published monograph on Ant Farm's sensational 1975 performance, Media Burn. This program will start with film footage of the event at the Cow Palace in San Francisco on July 4, 1975. Connie Lewallen (Berkeley Art Museum Curator) will introduce and contextualize the famous event, and Tanya Zimbardo (SFMOMA Assistant Curator of Media Arts) will moderate a conversation between Ant Farm member Chip Lord and the publication’s author Steve Seid (former Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Archive Curator), along with Doug Hall (artist) and Igor Vamos (RPI). Presented by RITE Editions and Inventory Press.
Towards A Self Sustaining Publishing Model, with Marc Fischer, Vivian Sming, Yuri Ogita, and Devin Troy Strother, moderated by Be Oakley
Friday, February 26 ~ 2–3:30pm EST
THE CLASSROOM This panel invites Marc Fischer of Temporary Services/Half Letter Press, Vivian Sming of Sming Sming Books, and Yuri Ogita and Devin Troy Strother of Coloured Publishing to talk openly about the ways they fund their projects. During the prolonged crisis of Covid-19, this panel confronts how we can continue to make our work without governmental, institutional, or large donor funding. Be Oakley of GenderFail will engage the panelists in a conversation about the money we make, the resources we have (and don't have), and how we can make a living. This panel will be a resource for smaller imprints and self-publishers to talk openly about radical forms of supporting each other. Presented by GenderFail.
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Friday, February 26 ~ 3:30–5pm EST
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Slavery, Geography and Empire in Nineteenth-Century Marine Landscapes of Montreal and Jamaica, with Charmaine Nelson, David Hartt, Frances Loeffler, and Jonathan Middleton
Friday, February 26 ~ 3:30–5pm EST
THE CLASSROOM This conversation takes up the subject of artist David Hartt’s recent poster project for Art Metropole, designed as an advertisement for Charmaine Nelson’s book, Slavery, Geography and Empire in Nineteenth-Century Marine Landscapes of Montreal and Jamaica (Routledge, 2016). These wheat-pasted posters, soon to be on the streets of Toronto, incorporate a photograph Hartt made in Jamaica and uses the language of guerrilla street-art advertising campaigns to promote an academic text that confronts the history of systemic racism in pre- and post-colonial Canada. Hartt’s project points to his own perspective as a Black Canadian now living in the United States, responding to recent events in the US, but also to how these histories are usually suppressed, and how systemic racism continues to be deeply embedded within Canada as well. Presented by Art Metropole.
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