Roaming: a column | somewhere between observation and critique | art and sound and movement by David Bernabo
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Here we are again, standing among hundreds of fellow biblio-adventurers, philomaths, and papyrophiliacs who feel the pull towards the bound page, the dizzying heights of letter pressed and screen printed micro-elevations, and the varied and bountiful sources of knowledge that evade the narrow radar of the status quo (and blood-feasting) mainstream journalistic outlets. If you are here, your satchel or tote or clutch is probably filled to the brim with all manner of zine, book, broadsheet, and poster. You probably ran into one or two or five or fifty people you knew. The clock probably hit five o’clock before you made it to every table.
What event is this, you ask? Surely, it’s the second annual Pittsburgh Art Book Fair (PABF), the two-day printed matter bash, hosted by Carnegie Museum of Art and created by Caroline Kern, Chas Wagner, Emma Honcharski, Mary Tremonte, and Jacquelyn Johnson.
For Roaming column readers, if this sounds like a familiar story, you are correct! A year ago, I kicked off this column with an experiential piece about the debut of the fair. PABF constitutes about 12.5% of my yearly writing, and it would seem that I am moving into year two of Roaming with that same goal in mind—although a recent book deal may dilute that percentage.
Back to the matter at hand—what is there to say about the second year of the fair? In many ways, it’s the same thing done again. Seventy-six-ish vendors displayed an exquisite selection of printed matter for two days. Each day had extracurriculars like a zine making workshop (led by Neta Bomani), a live podcast recording (with Paper Cuts Podcast), Amze Emmons’ analog tabletop game design workshop, and more. Tons of people showed up. By the end of the first day, 1,626 visitors made it through the fair’s entrance. I don’t have vendor sales figures, but I saw a lot of arms full of books, so I’d imagine overall sales potential was solid.
Margaret Cox and Michael Johnsen at the Miller ICA table.
My most immediate takeaway is that there are a large number of creators that take great care, time, and money to make beautiful things that expand that ways that we think. Here are a few personal highlights:
Spaces Corners’ Melissa Catanese and Ed Panar have both recently published beautifully-rendered books, The Lottery and Winter Nights, Walking, respectively. Their table was also graced by Melissa’s even newer book Fever field, “a bound translation of her immersive wall installation” on exhibit now at CMOA in the Widening the Lens: Photography, Ecology, and the Contemporary Landscape exhibition. The publication can be managed into multiple configurations by layering its semi-translucent vellum pages in different ways.
The Extra Credit table.
I loved everything on the Extra Credit table and picked up a double-sided print titled, “Build a Bathhouse with Javascript.” The print folds into a 3D object and includes the P5JS code to customize your digital bathhouse. It’s one of many fun publications from Jean Y. Kim.
The Tree News table.
Pittsburgh publication Tree News offered the fifth print issue of its newsletter. I haven’t had time to digest the written works yet, but the issue has a wonderful foldout collage, a “further reading” list, and plenty of full-color spotted lanternfly content.
Jamiyla Lowe’s table
I was blown away by Jamiyla Lowe’s illustrations and picked up the Good Evening book. It seems to be selling well as my copy of the 16-page, 7×10″ risograph zine is a fourth edition, numbered 84/100. Each illustration is full of mystery, richly detailed architecture and interior design, and a few characters that are either at peace or resigned to certain situations, or at least working through some stuff.
Lastly, I got a copy of Jacolby Satterwhite’s How lovly is me being as I am, an excellent companion book to Satterwhite’s 2021 exhibition at Miller ICA at Carnegie Mellon University.
If I can pivot to one point of criticism, there seems to be a disconnect between some of the theater programming and the main festivities. The teen-focused zine making session seemed well-attended, but I was one of four attendees at the Paper Cuts Podcast session. The low attendance could be due to a number of things—the decently long, slightly labyrinthian walk from the Hall of Sculpture to the Art Theater, or the way time dissolves when you are perusing printed goods and chatting with vendors. Whatever the cause, it’s a shame, because it was a really nice conversation between host and artist Christopher Kardambikis and in-person podcast guests Forrest Lawson of Sissy Boy Press, Rachel Jackson and Brandon Bandy of Special Effects, and Charlie Welch, co-founder of the NY Queer Zine Fair and co-/creator of zines like Queer Action Figures and Sissy Boy.
I think it was Charlie Welch, or maybe it was Brandon Bandy—I’m sorry, my notes are messy—who mentioned that art book fairs represent the point at which the accessible becomes inaccessible. A vendor table may start with multiple books and zines, but by the end of the day, certain titles may have transitioned to out of print status and are now only available on secondary markets. As someone who makes limited edition items—vinyl editions of 50, book editions of 100—I was curious what some of the vendors thought about selling out of book. A sidequest!
Brandon Bandy of Special Effects avoids the issue by keeping publications as open editions. Melissa and Ed from Spaces Corners point to a practical consideration of keeping a small stash of their own publications in their archive to maintain some flexibility in case a curator comes calling and wants to see a copy. A few people just felt happy that people wanted and received copies.
Lucas Regazzi of the newly-moved-to-Pittsburgh gallery april april shared that they feel “sheer pleasure to know [the publication] exists in the world at the quantity we printed it at.” Mossflower’s Margaret Kross, who also runs the ROMANCE gallery in Pittsburgh, echoed something similar, mentioning that selling out of editions often means that more people will know about the gallery space and be able to come and visit—her reasons for attending were more community-oriented. Taking a different approach and echoing something I’m more familiar with, Micah Weber from Huner Francis, countered with, “You should also consider the emotion of not selling out or not selling anything.” Fair, and something I do, truly, consider mostly everyday.
The Huner Francis table.
Here we are, a thousand words later, and the coffee that fueled that opening paragraph has thankfully worn off. From an outsider’s viewpoint, the fair seems like a success, and I hope that this time next year I’ll be writing, “Pittsburgh Art Book Fair, Year 3.” It looked effortless—though I’m sure that’s not the case. Major kudos to the fair founders for creating an event that supports local Pittsburgh creators while also bringing in dozens of creatives from across the country (and in a few cases, from outside the country.) These types of creative exchanges are important for continued creative development, exchanging ideas, building artist networks, and celebrating objects that didn’t exist one day and now exist.
Thanks for making community building look hip and organic. Kudos to Carnegie Museum of Art for supporting this effort. It’s important for Pittsburgh artists to be directly supported by their institutions. I’d love to see a museum reading room with a publication from each vendor. Also, it’s fitting that this event happens at CMOA where somewhat long ago, Sally Dixon created the Film Section, a program that encouraged local, national, and international filmmakers to share work, become friends, and build touring networks throughout the country. Lastly, kudos to the vendors. Thank you for traveling to share your work. It is appreciated.
David Bernabo is an oral historian, musician, artist, and independent filmmaker. His film work has documented western Pennsylvania food systems, climate change, the studio practices of composers and artists, and the histories of iconic arts institutions like the Mattress Factory. He is most noted for Moundsville, a documentary co-directed with former Wall Street Journal writer John W. Miller, which screened on PBS for three years.
IG: @davidbernabo
Website: davidbernabo.info
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