The NY Art Book fair this year was in a different location than previous years. Instead of two huge rooms it was in a space used for auctions and exhibitions which had many ajoining rooms and corners to hide in. I think I really prefered this space because each new turn led you to another little section to focus on. With the one big room it was a lot more overwhelming. I did get a little lost though trying to find particular booths or remembering which way I had gone. And that would have been fun if only it wasn’t boiling hot in there. I don’t understand why every year no matter where the space, it’s always ridiculously hot. I took many photos which I’m sharing below from the day.

left-Cinders gallery built a truck to sit behind and display their books. It’s hard to see from this image but it was really cute! See the soft steering wheel and windshield wipers?

left- James Morrison was hand silkscreening whatever his drawing of your choice onto colored tote bags. He did this previous years too but I was excited to see colored totes this year a new set of fun drawings.

left- ok this guy was a collector and couldn’t decide between a $1500 Ryan McGinness silkscreen or $750 naked Terry Richardson as a devil silkscreen. He picked Terry. It was funny watching him reason it. I mean it is an image of a red naked crazy man and “oh such a shimmer in the ink”. ha!

left-Love this Miranda July piece and the appropriate guy who sat in front of it.

left and right- The Purgatory Press table and lots of Susan Happersett’s work.

Liz Zanis gives us a preview to the book she illustrated and made examples for- Magic Books and Paper Toys by Ester K. Smith- remember her?

One room had a row of white books on one side and a row of black books on the other. You had to use white gloves to look at them. Liz did the honors. The white books turned out to be one billion dots in every shade of color. The black books were more interesting- the artist’s travels documented through maps, people visited through daily lists and what time they got up each morning stamped with a date stamper onto postcards. Kind of an insane anal project. Sorry I didn’t write down the artist name or anything. Someone know?Thanks Elisabeth The artist is On Kawara. It is a trilogy called I MET, I WENT and I GOT UP.

left- I was much less starstruck to see Michel Gondry this time. In fact I didn’t even bother to buy his new book on the making of his movie Be Kind Rewind. Did any of you like that movie? I mean the guy is a visual genius for sure but I think he shouldn’t try to write the movies too. right- I had never seen this guy Jason Jagel’s work before but really liked it. He was signing copies of his new book Seventy Three Funshine and drawing little pictures too. He somehow blows paint through some kind of tube tool – maybe an empty pen(?) onto a stencil he’s made. It makes this textured effect which is really really nice up close. The book must have weighted about 10 pounds though and carrying it around for the rest of the day was a bad idea. My arm is still sore. I’ll share the book this week.

There was an auction being held at the same time in a separate room of all the work in the gallery in the front. It was really weird to see. A rubber artist toy that looks like a cross between a Hello Kitty and a gremlin would come on the screen. Then people would bid like $900 and from the sidelines on phones someone else would outbid them.

Here’s the art up for auction. There was some really nice pieces.

left-Barry McGee Adidas sneakers- the shoelaces are amazing. right- If I was rich i would have bid on this Steve Powers silkscreen. I loved it.

You can get links to all the exhibitors from the show here.

© Julia Rothman 2007