Tracy Stefanucci is a powerhouse of creativity. Not only has she been publishing a magazine since 2006, but she also operates a local artist-run space, and is now producing an annual art book fair.
“A book fair is something that our organization has mused over for many years,” writes Stefanucci, catching spare moments between tasks to respond to my questions via email. “However, the idea for an art book fair began to take shape in 2010.
“We discovered that we were no longer creating a literary magazine and were actually creating an artist magazine.” Now called OCW Magazine, the former “vancouverlogue” of art and writing is a cornerstone of Vancouver’s artistic voice and creative community. However, since 2011, it has become an intermittently published platform for the curatorial interests of Stefanucci and her partner, Jaz Halloran. The magazine, published by the non-profit OCW Arts & Publishing Foundation, also runs Project Space, a bookshop, publisher, and alternative art space in Chinatown.
While Stefanucci credits local book fairs like Word Vancouver and Canzine West for enriching the local literary landscape, she could still see a “glaring gap for publishing grounded in a visual arts context.” In fact, when Stefanucci started planning the first Vancouver Art/Book Fair in 2011, there was no other international art book fair in Canada or on the West Coast, so she travelled to the New York Art Book Fair to research possibilities for a Vancouver fair.
“A book fair is something that our organization has mused over for many years.”
Tracy Stefanucci, Project Space
This past weekend, on Oct. 5 and 6, the second annual Vancouver Art/Book Fair (VA/BF) took over part of the Vancouver Art Gallery. The fair has expanded to a two-day festival of artists’ publishing featuring nearly 100 exhibitors, workshops and programs, performances and installations.
“There is artist publishing being produced by artist-run centres, individual artists and photographers, artist collectives, graphic designers and writers,” lists Stefanucci. “We try to capture this spectrum at VA / BF, and we also try to capture a range of the forms a ‘book’ can take: a traditional paper and ink booklet or piece of print ephemera, a magazine, a zine, an in-person engagement, multimedia, etc.”
The programming included diversity and variety, as Stefanucci managed to host speakers from as near as Victoria or San Francisco, to more distant places such as Manchester, Stockholm, and Istanbul. “We have presenters who centre their art practices on publishing and others who publish alongside graphic design studios or who identify primarily as writers . . . female, queer and aboriginal artists are represented. And the programs themselves vary from performances and artist talks to panels, workshops and installations.”
VA / BF featured three rooms full of exhibitors who are “local, national and international publishers of books, magazines, zines, printed ephemera and digital or other experimental forms of publication.”
Jason Vanderhill, creator of local blog Illustrated Vancouver, believes the vast array of exhibitors was one of the best parts of the weekend. “You don’t always get to see these art indie publications all in one place,” says Vanderhill. “So you might see a handful or a small sampling at Blim or Canzine West or the Art Gallery, but it’s a unique moment when they all converge.”
Running parallel with VA / BF was the Artists’ Books Weekend. Inspired by the London-based Arists’ Books Weekend, Stefanucci described ABW as an event series programmed by the community — any organizations, curators, publishers, artists, or artist-run centres can host an event in celebration of artist publishing and post it to the ABW webpage. It’s one of the ways they are encouraging the local community to get involved.
As one of VA / BF’s goals is to foster greater visibility for artist publishing and artists working in this medium, the fair continues to remain free and open to the public. “There is always room for improvement,” admits Stefanucci, “but for our second year I am really pleased with our ability to create space for so many voices and practices.”
