The Vancouver Art Book Fair is a non-profit organization committed to the advancement, appreciation and circulation of artists’ publishing.
Acting as a hub for Vancouver's art publishing communities year round, the organization supports the visibility, creation and circulation of art publishing as an artistic medium and social practice, and produces curatorial and publishing projects that are inclusive to dialogues in the visual arts, literary arts and graphic design.
VABF's core project, the annual international Vancouver Art Book Fair, acts as a survey exhibition of contemporary practices in artists' publishing. A critical piece of cultural infrastructure, the event serves as a platform for local artists and has brought hundreds of international artists' work to Vancouver since 2012.
Past and ongoing projects undertaken by the organization include Monthly Open Studios, publication projects and collaborations as VABF Press, participation in book fairs such as the Toronto Art Book Fair, LA Art Book Fair, Volume Montreal and Open Air Art Book Fair (Stockholm), and collaborative exhibitions such as Print Ready: Stockholm Edition (Minibar Gallery, Stockholm, May 2016) .
Current Board of Directors
Jaclyn Arndt and Vinny Gibson, Co-chairs
Beth Howe, Treasurer
Jeff Khonsary
Alistair Henning
Nav Nagra
Roni Simunovic
Since its inception over a decade ago, VABF has operated as a volunteer-run, grassroots endeavour. It has paid CARFAC-rate fees to presenters since 2013, was able to pay its first modest honorariums to fair organizers in 2014 and managed to create a few independent contractor fees as of 2016—and the organization continues to grow and mature.
Countless people have dedicated an immeasurable number of hours to shaping and building the organization and its projects since 2006. While it would be impossible to name everyone, we’d like to express immense gratitude to some of the volunteers who shaped and built the organization through its various incarnations: Kristin Cheung, Sarah Ellis Clark, Lisa Curry, Sylvana d’Angelo, Sarah Davidson, Jake Tobin Garrett, Jaz Halloran, Asia Harvey, Julia Dahee Hong, Sarah Husain, Jeff Khonsary, Natasha Lands, Michael Lee, Jessie McNeil, Jen Neale, Shannon Rayne, Jenny Shipper, Tracy Stefanucci, cheyanne tourions, Melanie Trojkovic, Alison Sinkewicz, Lauren Wetmore, Erica Wilk, Ken Yong, Pete Florentini, and Christy Nyiri.
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OUR HISTORY
The seeds of VABF were planted in 2006 when Tracy Stefanucci (our former Director) and Ken Yong founded one cool word, an art and literary magazine that included a CD compilation of local music and exclusively featured work by Vancouverites.
In 2010, Stefanucci registered the organization as the non-profit Society OCW Arts & Publishing Foundation and, with the help of Jaz Halloran, the magazine was relaunched as the artists’ publication OCW Magazine. One year later, the bookshop/gallery Project Space was opened at 222 East Georgia Street in Chinatown.
From 2011 to 2013, Project Space presented many curatorial projects, including: Arte Factum, an exhibition of poetry chapbooks curated by Daniel Zomparelli of Poetry Is Dead; Party Foreverer, accompanying an artist’s book by Jeffry Lee of Hard Drugs; Summer School, a socially based work by New York–based artists Erin Jane Nelson and Ming Lin; Money is Just Paperwork by collage artist Randy Grskovic; and The Wandering Art Metropole Publication and Ephemera Archive, co-presented with Art Metropole and featuring work by Julia Feyrer and leannej. It also served as a community hub and venue for a variety of art and literary events, readings and workshops.
After observing the building energy around art publishing in Vancouver, Stefanucci founded the first annual Vancouver Art/Book Fair in 2012 at the Vancouver Art Gallery. In 2013, the Project Space storefront was closed in order to focus on the art book fair, but the organization continued to go by the name Project Space for a few years. In 2016 the backslash in the VABF name was dropped and the name “Vancouver Art Book Fair” began being used to refer to the organization as well as the annual event.
Today, VABF is proud to operate the first international art book fair in Canada, while also serving the local art publishing community year-round through various curatorial events and activities. The organization is run by a dedicated team of independent contractors, volunteers and Board Members, and seeks to establish Vancouver as an international centre for artists’ publishing.
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Other F.a.q.s:
WHAT IS A BOARD OF DIRECTORS?
“A board is made up of individual board members acting together as a whole. Any board determines and communicates the purpose and scope of the organization. This is called the organization’s vision. The vision defines the boundaries within which the organization operates. VABF has a Policy Governing Board, meaning: The board hires a senior staff person such as an executive director to implement the organization’s vision and to manage the day-to-day business of the organization. The board has no part in the organization’s programming.”
As a small grassroots organization VABF board members are still needed to help in hands-on ways such as volunteering as general labour at events, helping to move and pack and support the actual event of the Fair, helping with grant writing and keeping track of finances in a detailed way.
*Description from Volunteer Alberta’s “Board Development: A Self-Guided Workbook”
WHAT IS AN ART BOOK?
We acknowledge that there are varying interpretations of what constitutes as an art book. VABF defines an art book as a work of art that utilizes the form of a book. An art book is interactive, portable, movable and easily shared. It focuses on publishing as an artistic medium, often produced in small editions or as a one-of-a-kind objects.
WHAT ARE THE VABF EXHIBITOR GUIDELINES?
In order to make this process transparent and fair, our committee will be reviewing all applications using the following set of criteria.
1. Exhibitors must focus on art books, zines or printed matter
2. Exhibitors must display at least 60% of books/printed matter during the fair, please include in your application what you are planning to exhibit
3. Ineligible applications include those that primarily intend to exhibit merch, catalogs, children’s books, graphics novels, comics or paintings or art work (please refer to VABF’s definition of an art book).
4. Selection will be based on the images, text and information you provide in your application. Please be accurate and as detailed as possible with the information you provide.
5. Exhibitors must have a working website by as well as a detailed plan on how products will be sold online.
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VANCOUVERARTBOOKFAIR.COM
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