New York Art Book Fair: Books of Note

A trip to the New York Art Book Fair prompts a selection of good examples of developing typologies of architecture and design books, indicating that content is winning out over sleek design.

On Thursday, 27 September 2012, I visited the New York Art Book Fair and braced myself for a deluge of beautiful books. The fair is a megaplex of printed matter by international presses, booksellers, antiquarians, artists, and independent publishers, all crammed into 283 booths over four floors and assaulted by 20,000 visitors. Honing in on publications with an architectural and design bent narrowed the field a bit and revealed an encouraging range of new production. The fair has seen has seen an explosion in participants and paper, even as the future of the book is frequently described with attendant skepticism. Somehow, even, the books are getting better. There is more writing, more research, more experimentation, more pedagogy and more collaboration. The selections are meant to serve as good examples of these developing typologies of architecture and design books and an indication that content is winning out over sleek design.

The Aspen Complex
Edited by Martin Beck, with essays by Sabeth Buchmann, Felicity D. Scott, Alice Twemlow
Sternberg Press
Beck's new book is an outgrowth of the exhibition of the same name, and as usual for him, combines a sprawling research project with his own curatorial and artistic practices that formed the core of an exhibition shown at London's Gasworks and Columbia University's Arthur Ross Architectural Gallery. Beck's project looks intently at the International Design Conference held in Aspen in 1970, and in so doing explores forces involved and their historical implications. Complex indeed, Beck's artistic practice allows for a lateral movement through topics and mediums with a deftness that makes other stated curatorial innovation seem clumsy.
Top: <em>Electric Information Age Album</em>, The Masses & Project Projects. Above: <em>The Aspen Complex</em>,
edited by Martin Beck, with essays by Sabeth Buchmann, Felicity D. Scott, Alice Twemlow, Sternberg Press
Top: Electric Information Age Album, The Masses & Project Projects. Above: The Aspen Complex, edited by Martin Beck, with essays by Sabeth Buchmann, Felicity D. Scott, Alice Twemlow, Sternberg Press
Invalid Format, Vol. 2
The Editors
Triple Canopy, Sternberg Press
The second anthology of Triple Canopy's online magazine was released at the fair. This volume represents just the second year of it's existence (now four and a half) and opens up correspondence associated with the development of the magazine into a thriving platform. The book both serves as an archive of its projects while also being a forum for exploring the relationship between page, screen and venue. The best aspects of Triple Canopy as an engaged community are well on display here.
<em>Invalid Format, Vol. 2</em>, The Editors, Triple Canopy, Sternberg Press
Invalid Format, Vol. 2, The Editors, Triple Canopy, Sternberg Press
Making Policy Public: Power Trip
With Samantha Contis, Fatima Abdul-Nabi, Benjamin Critton, Hubert Gancarz, BinHua Wang, David Park, Awa Baldeh
The Center for Urban Pedagogy
The latest installation of the Center for Urban Pedagogy's Making Policy Public series is a collaborative project between teaching artists, graphic designers, local public high schoolers and consulted agencies and organizations. This issue explored the infrastructure and apparatus that keeps the lights on, and in so doing boils down a very complex topic in clear terms. CUP's projects are a pleasant counterpoint to the rest of the book fair, affording the people involved an opportunity to (figuratively or literally) peer down some manholes and look at the city.
There is more writing, more research, more experimentation, more pedagogy and more collaboration
<em>Making Policy Public: Power Trip</em>, with Samantha Contis, Fatima Abdul-Nabi, Benjamin Critton, Hubert Gancarz, BinHua Wang, David Park, Awa Baldeh,
The Center for Urban Pedagogy
Making Policy Public: Power Trip, with Samantha Contis, Fatima Abdul-Nabi, Benjamin Critton, Hubert Gancarz, BinHua Wang, David Park, Awa Baldeh, The Center for Urban Pedagogy
Surface Series
Batia Suter
Roma Publications
Totally engrossing investigation of the concept of terrain in all of its scales and manifestations. As a result, this book is largely about dirt. A beautiful, haunting archive of dirt of the kind that would make W.G. Sebald proud. As such, it is a book that functions like music, creating a wash of textures and new synaptic connections. Every book published by Roma is painfully elegant, but this one should speak to those on a spatial wavelength.
<em>Surface Series</em>, Batia Suter, Roma Publications
Surface Series, Batia Suter, Roma Publications
Making the Walls Quake As if They Were Dilating With Secret Knowledge of Great Powers
Michael Libera & Lidia Klein
Zacheta National Gallery of Art, though Motto Distribution
The curator of the Polish pavillion at the 13th Venice Architecture Biennale has put together a reader on sound in architecture. The pavillion itself was designed as an instrument of sorts, organizing acoustical components rather than other architectural features, creating an unsettling and potent reminder of the extensibility of sound. The essays contained in this book should be an invaluable primer on a neglected topic.
A page detail in <em>Surface Series</em>, Batia Suter, Roma Publications
A page detail in Surface Series, Batia Suter, Roma Publications
Juliaan Lampens
Angelique Campens
ASA Publishers, through Motto Distribution
The work in this monograph of the Belgian architect Juliaan Lampens has competition in the photography, executed stunningly by Jan Kempenaers. The architecture, in concrete, glass and wood seems to exist totally for the purposes of being documented in this book, an outstanding and promising early venture from a new imprint of MER Paper Kunsthalle.
<em>Making the Walls Quake As if They Were Dilating With Secret Knowledge of Great Powers</em>, Michael Libera & Lidia Klein, Zacheta National Gallery of Art, though Motto Distribution
Making the Walls Quake As if They Were Dilating With Secret Knowledge of Great Powers, Michael Libera & Lidia Klein, Zacheta National Gallery of Art, though Motto Distribution
Public Occasion Agency 1-22
Jan Nauta & Scrap Marshall
Bedford Press
I will admit to having a certain fondness for spiral binding, and this is no exception. From a project founded at the Architectural Association in 2009, this edition was done in collaboration with Bedford Press and POA and examines the 22 events they undertook examining new possibilities of participation in architectural discourse.
<em>Juliaan Lampens</em>,
Angelique Campens,
ASA Publishers, through Motto Distribution
Juliaan Lampens, Angelique Campens, ASA Publishers, through Motto Distribution
Electric Information Age Album
The Masses & Project Projects
A side venture for Project Projects, the Electric Information Age Album is an outgrowth of the book collaboration between Jeffrey T. Schnapp and Adam Michaels, exploring the legacy of Marshall McLuhan. This lovely little album represents the possibilities of designers going rogue, experimenting and playing. The result, is the birth of a new genre of "Book Rock," which I am hoping will encourage future such weirdness.
<em>Werkplaats Typografie Room</em>, Project by Arina Kiseleva, Werkplaats Typografie
Werkplaats Typografie Room, Project by Arina Kiseleva, Werkplaats Typografie
Werkplaats Typografie Room
Project: Arina Kiseleva, Werkplaats Typografie
As usual, the students from the Werkplaats Typografie were invited to inhabit the fair and put their diverse research on display. Of note was a book written in Ink only visible to UV light. Serving as a sort of liner notes for various profoundly minimal music, from Cage's 4'33' to Klein's Silence Symphony, this elegant gesture provided a much appreciated counterpoint to the massive proliferation of design. Every such gigantic exposition should have something similarly soothing to rest one's eyes on.

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