L.A. Art Book Fair 2014

February 3, 2014

January 3 1- February 2 @ the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA | http://laartbookfair.net/about

Last friday, I attended the L.A. Art Book Fair at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA. I absolutely loved it. Being fond of art and having collected art books for so many years, walking amongst rows and rows of art books, to me, felt simply joyous, familiar, and comfortable. It’s no wonder, for after all, I was now amongst the people of my own tribe, where I could find plenty of artists’ books, art catalogues, monographs, periodicals, and of course, not to forget plenty of zines. This year, zines are once again a big part of the fair and one of my favorites. How amazing it is to witness these talented artists with very limited publishing possibilities who can still create and put together art books even if they are only photocopied and are very limited editions.

As I was strolling amongst the art books, I was thinking about what I had heard – this year alone, Printed Matter had received about 600 applicants, and there were only 260 exhibition spaces available. Wow, I thought, so that means they really tried to pick the best and bring variety, quality, and newness to the fair for this year. What a feast for the creative mind this place is. As I understand, in attendance, there were over 250 international presses, book sellers, antiquarians, artists, and independent publishers. In addition to the exhibitions was the possibility of attending different lectures going on almost by the hour, enjoying KCHUNG radio with live coverage broadcasting from the inside of Geffen, the different bands that played throughout the weekend in the courtyard, plus MOCA TV – bringing entertainment to the crowd of book buyers, collectors, dealers, curators, and independent publishers from 25 different countries.

Already exhausted of being on on my feet the whole day, I thought, Oh, how good it feels being saturated by all this beauty going on in the pages of all these art books. I had definitely enjoyed the fair. It was very mind-broadening, both culturally and intellectually. At that point, I stopped, paused, looked all around me, and made a firm promise to myself that I would definitely be back to see the L.A. Art Book Fair again next year.