For one weekend each fall, Printed Matter's NY Art Book Fair does a complete takeover of MoMA PS1. Publishers, galleries, and collectsives from all over the world set up booths, showcasing their newest and most exciting books and zines. There’s a lot to sort through but it's well worth the effort. Here are five under-the-radar gems to seek out.
Photo: Courtesy of ALBUM / Primaey Information and Teknisk Industri AS1/5ALBUM by Elise Storsveen and Eline Mugaas at ALBUM
ALBUM, a zine of the same name, is a collaboration between Storsveen and Mugaas, who are both very much fine artists in their own right. Since 2008, the two have been collectsing found imagery and publishing one or two issues a year, each loosely based around a theme. This book is a culmination of their first ten issues and is one of the most exciting offerings from this year’s massive Norwegian section.
Photo: Courtesy of Alessandro Simonetti / @zuekster2/5One on Four by Alessandro Simonetti at Ed. Varie
This book of portraits reads like a New York yearbook. Using a traditional, four-frame passport camera, Simonetti has spent the past fifteen years photographing a range of creative types, both his friends and people who inspire him. Artist Ana Kras is on the cover, and there are only ten copies for sale in a rainbow of colors.
Photo: Courtesy of Pau Wau Publications3/5Plants by Polly Brown at Pau Wau Publications
This book, Pau Wau’s first hardcover, reduces internationally recognized companies and brands to the potted office plants found in their offices. Brown claims it’s a “look behind the veneer” of a carefully crafted public image, and an exploration of the need for nature in a manmade space.
Photo: Courtesy of Cali Thornhill DeWitt / @caramelbobby4/5Twenty Four Hour Fantasy Reality by Cali Thornhill DeWitt at WSSF
DeWitt, who has gold teeth and was once Frances Bean Cobain’s nanny, made tombstone eulogies on sweatshirts and posters in response to notable Los Angeles deaths. The zine on offer is a Xeroxed documentation of every piece in his show at the Human Resources gallery in L.A. this past August.
Photo: Courtesy of Conveyor Editions5/5Conveyor Magazine No. 6 – The Alchemy Issue at Conveyor Editions
The theme, alchemy, is explored in both literal and metaphorical ways throughout the issue. Highlights include photo essays by Richard Learoyd, who uses a camera obscura to make one-of-a-kind prints, and **Jason Larkin’**s Tales from the City of Gold, which documents how, in Johannesburg, gold-mining has worked as an “anti-alchemy, turning land from gold to mercury.” Also of note: Dinamo, a Swiss-type foundry, was commissioned to create a font that evolves over the course of the issue.
