The eighth annual NY Art Book Fair runs from Friday through Sunday at MoMA PS 1. Organized by Printed Matter, the event will bring together over 230 exhibitors from 29+ countries in high-ceilinged galleries that would otherwise sit empty, awaiting installation of PS 1’s fall exhibitions.

Last year 25,000 artists, book buyers, collectors, dealers, curators, independent publishers, DIY book-makers and other enthusiasts came to the fair—to browse, shop, schmooze, swap, and snack—and to attend the wall-to-wall panels, workshops, readings, book signings, and other artist-led programs.

This year, Los Angeles-based artist Eve Fowler has created a new book, Anyone Telling Anything is Telling That Thing as the NYABF benefit edition, which will help to support free admission to the Contemporary Artists’ Books Conference (CABC) for all visitors. The book documents Fowler's public art project that uses posters incorporating the text of Gertrude Stein's Tender Buttons; includes an essay by Litia Perta and Corrine Fitzpatrick; is designed by Lauren Mackler of Public Fiction; and is produced by Conveyor Arts. 

HIMAA (Masanao Hirayama) for Nieves (2012). Courtesy NYABF.

The NY Art Book Fair [NYABF] is such an essential meeting ground that I asked a number of DART subscribers to share their thoughts on what makes it special. Here is what they wrote:

Alexander Campos, Executive Director and Curator, The Center for Book Arts
The Center for Books Arts being the first not-for-profit of its kind, will once again participate in this major annual artist book fair, one of the largest fairs of its kind. This fair has become a fundamental vehicle for both learning about book arts in general but also for creating a contemporary art context for artist books which is the mission of the Center for Book Arts. In keeping with the Center's mission, to provide opportunities for artists, this year for the first time at NYABF, the Center has invited its artist members to submit artwork to be presented at the Center’s booth. Thirty artworks were selected by a [CBA] committee to show alongside the Center’s program information on exhibitions, courses, and artist opportunities.

The Center’s booth will feature the full gamut of artist books from Unique Book Objects to Handmade Limited Editions, and from Offset Multiples to Fine Letterpress Small Editions. Artists being presented include Rosaire Appel, Doug Beube, Loretta Cappanera, Beatrice Coron, Karen Kunc, Heidi Neilson, Chris Perry, Tricia Treacy, Thomas Parker Williams, and many others.

The Center for Book Arts will host an Open House on Saturday, September 21, from 2pm on, with demonstrations and conversations with book arts artists and instructors. This is also the last day for the summer exhibition, Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here. 28 West 27^th Street, 3^rd Floor, NY, NY.

Dierdre Donohue, the Stephanie Shuman Librarian of the International Center of Photography 
The NY Art Book Fair has gradually become the very centerpiece event in each busy year of the ICP Library because our community is really, really in love with making books, and the “House that Printed Matter Built” is the nucleus of all of that vitality. The immense number of vendors from throughout the world who assemble at PS1 guarantees that I will learn a huge amount, meet fascinating artists, publishers and distributors, and will not be off my feet all weekend. I love to be able to handle the books myself. No digital interface can replicate that. It also functions like an ICP Alumni Weekend, where I can see the hundreds of beloved graduates of our programs and see what they are up to.

ICP MFA’s will have a table at the fair and will also be opening their studios down the street from PS1 (24-20 Jackson Avenue, 3rd Floor, Long Island City) on Friday Sept. 20, along with a pop-up reading room and shop we are calling An Echo of A Different Kind of Order, ICP’s bibliophilic critically-acclaimed Triennial closes on the same day as the book fair. ICP. ICP Library.

Matthew Carson, Librarian and Archivist at ICP Library; one of the founders of the 10x10 Photobook group; Editor of Monsters & Madonnas, the ICP Library blog
Just back from Tokyo for the opening of the 10x10 American Photobook Reading Room at the Tokyo Institute of Photography, where we launched the 10x10 AmericanPhotobook catalogue. The book will also be previewed at the NYABF this week, which promises to be awesome, as usual. Artists today are generating new ways in which their photographic books propose ideas and also create nuanced and symbiotic relationships to the display and exhibition of their visual works.

At the session I’ve organized at NYABF for Saturday at 2 pm, publisher Roger Willems will discuss the understated and exceptional books he has produced in collaboration with various artists at ROMA publications, and artists Moyra Davey and John Neff will share their deeply considered approaches to developing book projects in conversation with exhibition ideas. The discussion will be moderated by artist Pradeep Dalal. Information.

Mathieu Renard, artist and editor of Lendroit Editions, France
I’ve known about Printed Matter in New York and its reputation as a mecca for artist books and ephemera for years, and participating in the 2010 NY Art Book Fair allowed me to discover, first hand, many more publishers and artists and to experience the curiosity and enthusiasm of the New York audience for artist books. 

This is a very exciting and interesting time, both from the point of view of the amateur and the professional. At Lendroit Editions, we are working to develop our distribution network, especially in New York, and are promoting that with a poster by the artist Armelle Caron, a wry and poetic vision of New York, a city so geometric and sprawling. We hope that the 2013 NYABF will be an opportunity to explore new projects with artists and publishers for Lendroit Editions and look forward to meeting DART subscribers this weekend.

John McWhinnie@Glenn Horowitz Bookseller (2011). Courtesy NYABF.

David Sandlin, artist and educator
This amazing, sprawling fair (the biggest of its kind in the world now?) offers a chance to see—and buy—artist’s books and printed works from just about everyone who ever made such things. You never know what kind of treasures are going to be out there. One year the Sims Reed Gallery from London had Eduardo Paolozzi’s Moonstrips Empire News portfolio; another time they had a complete set of Goya’s Disasters of War.

Things I’ll check out at the fair this year: The Ray Johnson room sounds great, and the Bruno Munri show; also the show In the Good Name of the Company, artworks and ephemera produced with the Colby Printing Company, down the street at 26-19 Jackson Avenue. The booths I know in advance that I’ll visit are Printed Matter, Retard Riot, Desert Island, Ugly Duckling, Boo Hooray, Editions Fink, Nieves, Picture Box, Mark Bell, Bywater Brothers, Art Metropole, and Booklyn; and I’m hoping to find lots more that will be equally interesting.

This year I’m participating in a panel on Contemporary Experimental Comics and/as Artists’ Books, with Gabe Fowler and Andrei Molotiu. It’s at 4pm on Saturday, and is moderated by James Mitchell.

We find the NY Art Book Fair to be a great initiative for the production of new publications. In the months leading up to the fair, we definitely feel the energy and excitement for the event, as we meet with many artists and small publishers creating projects to launch at the fair. All summer our press and bindery have been non-stop with projects for exhibitors at this fair. It's exciting to get a sneak peek at these publications. Information. More Information.

Ofer Wolberger, artist and publisher, Horses Think Press
I always look forward to the NY Art Book Fair, it's one of the best out there and this year should be just as good if not better than previous editions. Horses Think Press is moving ahead and has started publishing other artist books in addition to my own projects. We will have a mysterious new book titled Mystic Places by Justin James Reed and a very limited edition hardcover book by Bill Sullivan titled Forest Hills as well as a 2nd edition printing of my own project, Visitor. Information.

David Strettell, founder of Dashwood Books, an independent bookseller and publisher
I feel there is a real sense of community to the NY Art Book Fair. The financial investment is less and the sense of competition amongst dealers isn't quite as palpable. I like the idea of dealers selling books for tens of thousands of dollars next to a kid selling buttons for 25 cents. For me, as I do as much buying and selling and now I'm doing more publishing, it gives me a chance to launch a few publications and plan signings at my store in the city around this time of year. Information. 
Dashwood Books is hosting a book signing tonight for Bruce Gilden | Foreclosures  at 33 Bond Street, NY, NY.

Badlands Unlimited (2011). Courtesy NYABF.

Russell Fernandez, Marketing Manager/Publicist at Princeton Architectural Press
The audience at the NY Art Book Fair is as eclectic and hard to define as the books on our list. They really appreciate our idiosyncratic take on visual culture. From a marketing standpoint, it's ideal. Where else could we find designers, typographers, visual artists, and book lovers of every stripe under one roof? The hard part for us is deciding which books from the backlist to bring. We wish we could to bring them all! Information.

Mary Virginia Swanson, co-author with Darius Himes of "Publish Your Photography Book" (Princeton Architectural Press 2011).
The NY Art Book is the most exciting book fair of the year. I look forward to the rare opportunity to meet book-makers, publishers, and distributors and discuss their recent projects. Seeing limited edition books in person is a joy! As hand-crafted artists books-meet-digital printing, I anticipate seeing examples of innovative hybrid book objects at this year's fair. The NYABF always offers strong slate of education (CABC) within the same facility, too. Who could ask for anything more?
MVS has been honored with the Griffin Museum of Photography Lifetime Achievement Award, which will be presented on October 19. Information.

The 2013 NY Art Book Fair, free and open to the public, takes place at MoMA PS 1, 22-25 Jackson Avenue at the intersection of 46^th Avenue, Long Island City, NY. The fair is free, but to guarantee a seat for the keynotes at the CABC and other talks, advance tickets/$30 are available.