Books
‘Recto / Verso : Art Publishing in Practice, New York’ at the New York Art Book Fair
- 21 September 2018
21 – 23 Sep 2018 MoMA PS1, Long Island City, Queens
This past August, Hauser & Wirth Publishers and Artbook @ MoMA PS1 Bookstore co-presented Recto / Verso: Art Publishing in Practice, a month-long event series that explored the creative processes and ecosystems in the art publishing communities of New York. Bringing together a range of voices and participants, Recto / Verso featured local small presses and zine collectives as well as digital, nonprofit, and institutional publishers.
Each week of Recto / Verso centered around a specific topic within the field of art publishing, beginning with an in-depth look at how art books circulate in creative communities, then shifting focus to activism and zine publishing, artists’ books and artist-run presses. The series concluded with an exploration of digital, institutional, and non-profit publishing. Events took place at both Artbook @ MoMA PS1 in Long Island City and at the Hauser & Wirth Publishers Bookshop in Chelsea. Recto / Verso culminated in an eponymous publication that acts as both a record and an invitation to continue conversations from the series. Produced by Hauser & Wirth Publishers and launching on the occasion of Printed Matter’s NY Art Book Fair in September, the book’s structure corresponds to each week of Recto / Verso programming, including excerpts from the panels and workshop outlines, as well as contributions from series participants and information about their respective practices and organizations.
Brick-and-mortar spaces like bookshops, libraries, and art book fairs have become sites of resistance in their championing of live interactions between people and objects over efficiency. During the first week of the series, Emmy Caterdral (Coordinator of Fairs and Editions at Printed Matter), Sharon Helgason Gallagher (President & Publisher, ARTBOOK | D.A.P.), Nicole Kaack (Dedalus Fellow in The Museum of Modern Art Archives), and Lisa Pearson (Publisher at Siglio Press), in a panel moderated by Megan N. Liberty, discussed the changing role of the artbook within an increasingly digitally-oriented and e-commerce-driven culture.
‘As an independent publisher, before I was with D.A.P., I dealt directly with bookstores. And each bookstore, especially in the age of Amazon, those stores have had to reinvent themselves as highly curated spaces. As places where communities can gather or where there are events, just like we’re doing now.’ – Lisa Pearson, Siglio Press In conjunction with the panel, artist and publisher Paul Soulellis (Library of the Printed Web) led a workshop in which participants collaborated on a publication that combined digital and analog media.
Workshop: Urgency Print Lab, MoMA PS1 Bookspace
Workshop: Urgency Print Lab, MoMA PS1 Bookspace
Week 2: Activism and Zine Publishing
Zine culture is as driven by anarchists, punks, and political protesters as it is by various art communities. Week two of the series brought together 3 Dot Zine, Endless Editions, TXTbooks, Interference Archive, and 8-Ball Community for a talk on the inherently subversive nature of zine publishing. Led by Femme Mâché, the conversation delved into the influence of DIY publishing in activism and art practice, along with the application of that spirit to community engagement. ‘…if we’re talking in terms of accessibility, sometimes all it means to call yourself a publisher in the zine world is having a printer and letting anyone come in and make whatever they want. That contaminates the otherwise agreed upon definition of what a publisher is and what power that holds.’ – Bobbi Salvör-Menuez, 8-Ball Community Following the discussion, Stefanie Lewin of Young Artist Zine Alliance led an interactive workshop where participants were taught the history of zines as a crafty form of DIY activism. The workshop delved into different zine-making techniques.
Workshop: Binding for Self-Publishing, Hauser & Wirth Publisher’s Bookshop. Photo: Fanny Texier
Workshop: Binding for Self-Publishing, Hauser & Wirth Publisher’s Bookshop. Photo: Fanny Texier
Recto / Verso Book Market
For the last event of Recto / Verso we celebrated the series with an evening of drinks in the Roth Bar and provided a chance for everyone to browse and purchase the publications produced by the series’ esteemed presenters. There was also a brief presentation from designer Brian Paul Lamotte on the process of creating ‘Recto / Verso: Art Book Publishing and Practice, New York.’