ARCA at the Vancouver Art Book Fair 2017

As part of a 2017-2018 canadian launches tour, Artist-Run Centres and Collectives Conference (ARCA) showcased The Grey Guide to Artist-Run Publishing & Circulation at the Vancouver Art Book Fair (VABF), from October 13 to 15, 2017. By the end of the two-day fair, all copies of the Grey Guide brought to the fair had been distributed or sold.

As part of the fair’s programming, ARCA hosted a conversation on “discoverability in art publishing” facilitated by John Maxwell, head of Simon Fraser University’s Publishing department, with emerging art book publishers some of whom were among the fair’s volunteers and staff. The conversation focused on referencing publications using available SEO open source digital repositories vs exploitative platforms such as Google and the variety of points of sale available for their sustained publicity and circulation.

Copies of the Grey Guide are available at the new location of READ Books art library, adjacent to the Libby Leshgold Gallery, on the Emily Carr University of Art and Design campus, as well as the Or Gallery Bookstore. Copies are also available for online purchase on the ARCA website.

Among the many participants, our colleagues from The New Gallery (Calgary), Or Gallery and Publication Studio (Vancouver), Alternator (Kelowna) as well as Halifax INK, who presented their publications as well as those created by artists in their membership.