Whitechapel Galley is presenting a book fair that reportedly presents the best in international contemporary art publishing. The viewer can browse beautiful artists’ books, rare art publications and catalogues from over 80 publishers. The three day event also hosts a collection of talks and performances.
The opening night features a live set by Turner Prize-winning artist and musician Martin Creed, who will be treating the audience to a short performance of the artist’s catchy, humorous songs, Creed kicks-off the weekend of performances, talks and workshops. AA Bronson,, the founder of the NY Art Book Fair, talks about artists’ books, his life and work; and will be joined in conversation by Sam Ashby, founder of the ‘zine, Little Joe.
There is also more erudite conversation, and cultural theory in the form of Philosopher Simon Critchley is joined in conversation with artist Gareth Long to discuss fiction, autobiography and the art of memory. Alongside his new fictional work Memory Theatre, Critchley addresses the notion of a hypothetical machine containing the sum of all knowledge – and performance from Louise Hervé & Chloé Maillet: The Response. Which in keeping with past works, is a perambulatory performance based on a series of books; the key notion, ‘the response’, is from American art-historian David Freedberg’s The Power of Images.
The event also includes ‘Talk: Book Club Presents’ – Bookclub is a Toronto-based group who come together to share their interest in collecting curious artists’ books, and Antonia Hirsch: In Conversation where the artist is joined in conversation by the co-founder of the project Care of Editions, Gerhard Schultz, to discuss their overlapping interests in the economies of distribution, both in relation to books and music.
The Whitechapel Gallery will also feature workshops, with ‘Book Dissection: The Art and Craft Behind the Product’ in which Sam Arthur, co-founder of Nobrow and Flying Eye Books and designer Emily Sear take participants backwards in the book making process to reveal the craft behind the product.
The event concludes with two talks from Black Sun; Artist Shezad Dawood, editor Gerrie van Noord, and designers Oliver Knight and Rory McGrath discuss the role of the book and its potential to expand upon an artist’s work.
And last but not least we have Gavin Turk: In Conversation. The artist is joined by Whitechapel Gallery director Iwona Blazwick to discuss his work and the preoccupations and forms that occupy his thoughts in the landscape of contemporary art.
Whitechapel Gallery 26- 28 September