This past weekend, a flash mob of zinesters and DIY devotees descended upon Downtown Los Angeles for Printed Matter's LA Art Book Fair. For the first time since 2019, the cult rendezvous returned to the city, landing at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA with over 300 fair exhibitors. For those who didn't get to attend or simply want a refresher on the jam-packed event, CULTURED spoke to a handful of presses and participants to get a read on where the pulse of the alternative publishing world is at.
Kill Your Idols call themselves a “Punk Rock Museum.” The collective archives, publishes, and distributes punk materials like zines, posters, and albums in the spirit of keeping rock alive. Their founder, Bryan Ray Turcotte, talks keeping visuals clean while maintaining an authentic voice.
CULTURED: Tell us a bit about who you are as a literary group.
Bryan Ray Turcotte: We are completely dedicated to DIY, punk, and counterculture. We are raw and brazen in our approach in order to create books as true to the spirit of the culture itself.
CULTURED: What makes an art book interesting?
Turcotte: It’s truly interesting if an art book itself can represent the artist’s intention and point of their work as an object in itself. We always approach all our books as if the art itself dictates the way it needs to look, feel, and speak.
CULTURED: How did you bring your archive to LAABF? How do you see your archive interacting with contemporary interests?
Turcotte: We represent a culture that is rooted in the past at the same time as being very forward, so we do so with truth and honesty, without posing or posturing to act as though we are any more important than anything else.
¡AGITPOP! Press’s LAABF table was full of bananas and ‘60s mod prints curated with a critical eye. Cara Marsh Sheffler, one of ¡AGITPOP!’s founders, discusses the group’s advocacy against imperialism and patriarchy.
CULTURED: Tell us a bit about who you are as a literary group.
Cara Marsh Sheffler: ¡AGITPOP! PRESS is a New York-based artist book collaboration between artist Johannah Herr and writer Cara Marsh Sheffler. Each book subverts the form of the propaganda it investigates, whether it's a Sears catalog, a recipe book, a World’s Fair Guide, or an advertising booklet. Collectively, this body of work focuses on how the U.S. government colluded with corporate America to blur the lines between military, political, and cultural conquest in the creation of the so-called American Century. We portray American decline as what it invariably is: a consumer experience.
CULTURED: What are some current art book trends you're noticing?
Sheffler: As the artists' book community exists alongside (and owes a lot of its existence to) queer and other marginalized communities, the trends in terms of content reflect our political environs. Gender inclusivity is probably the most front and center one—and we love to see it! Formally, we are seeing a lot of nostalgia for outmoded technology and a deep concern about metadata. When we were at the Palais de Tokyo for the Paris Ass Book Fair earlier this summer, we also saw a great deal of work that dealt with censorship, which sits at the nexus of all of those concerns. Materially, the work really runs the gamut as it always has and always should, and there is not an NFT in sight. We are grateful for both of those things.
CULTURED: What makes an art book interesting?
Sheffler: Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart said of pornography, "I know it when I see it." A good art book is much the same—and sometimes might even involve a little porn! Both of us have creative practices that use whatever means are most fitting to get a point across effectively. Neither one of us is married to a medium or form and that is what is so great about artists' books—they aren't either. Ideally, we would say a formal melding of the book between its materiality, content, and construction is what's most important. But, we would also say great books are more than the sum of their parts, and maybe tear at you a little too. We love a book that leaves it all on the dancefloor, whether it's heavy and didactic or more light and decorative. Diversity and the element of surprise are what keep artists' books so fascinating.
CULTURED: Any other presses and groups you were excited to visit?
Sheffler: We tabled next to Paper Chase Press with Printed Matter at NADA Miami in 2021, and we were so excited to visit them in their home city. Artists' books operate largely outside the normal publishing world. These fairs are a vital part of their makers' ability to keep going and it's so important to support them. We are honored to be in a room of creators with so much heart and integrity.
These Days is a Los Angeles-based space taking on gallery shows, publishing, and bookselling. One of their founders, Stephen Zeigler, talks retro appreciation and book fair energy.
CULTURED: Tell us a bit about who you are as a literary group.
Stephen Zeigler: These Days is a gallery and bookshop located in Downtown LA, run by husband and wife team Stephen and Jodi Zeigler, both fourth generation Angelenos. We have eclectic tastes in both art and print but lean toward artists of the more rebellious and avant-garde nature. The gallery shows emerging and mid-career artists and holds no focus on a specific medium. We are as interested in photography as we are in sculpture and painting. The store sells books about subcultures and art movements: everything from Dada to psychedelia to punk and skateboarding.
CULTURED: What drew you to LAABF?
Zeigler: Every year we would go and shop and meet publishers and booksellers from around the world, but this was our first as exhibitors. To have all these people from all over the world who share the same passion for print is really inspiring. The exhibitors are incredibly diverse in interest and publishing practices. From the kid making their first Xerox fanzines to elders who have been at it for over 50 years producing beautiful rare artists books, there is a shared spirit and enthusiasm. Plus the people watching is great!
CULTURED: What are some current art book trends you're noticing?
Zeigler: We are seeing a lot of interest in the 1960s and ‘70s political underground press. There was an incredible amount of printing done during that time, mostly meant to be ephemeral. So much was never held onto. What was preserved tells the story of an important time of political change.
Errant Press publishes creative content out of Los Angeles. Visiting their booth, you might have noticed an emphasis on objects that aim at the same interests as art books, but take different shapes, like matchbooks and tape measures. Tania Chaidez, one of their founders, gets into the specifics of building outside of the traditional art-book conventions.
CULTURED: Tell us a bit about who you are as a literary group.
Tania Chaidez: Errant Press is an independent effort to create, print, bind, and distribute books that challenge traditional book forms and reading dynamics. Each of our pieces explores different limits of the book. Matchbook explores the form by bounding an intense personal poem into an actual matchbook, turning the fire into a physical part of the book. May Fragile, a children's short story meant to be read by two or more people, explores the possibilities of communal reading and oral tradition. Steal Me Press, a collection of bilingual zines about anarchist literature and poetry meant to be stolen during the book fairs, explores the conceptual extension of the book by forcing its reader to commit an unlawful but poetic crime.
CULTURED: What drew you to LAABF?
Chaidez: It is the most important art book community, and participating is a dream come true. It allows us to reach an international audience without the travel expenses usually paid by the profit from the event. It's also a great challenge and opportunity to show our latest work to a knowledgeable audience and other participants, people we admire and respect. Our bilingual content aims to erase borders between Latin American writers and non-Spanish speakers, creating an always rich cultural exchange.
CULTURED: What makes an art book interesting?
Chaidez: Being able to enter the mind of an artist, to see and feel the result of a lifetime of thinking about something and finally getting it out as a book.
