Exhibitors

Pia Singh presents: South Asian Art Books and Zines
05:30 PM — 06:30 PM
CABF Program Hall (1st Floor)

In an attempt to dislodge the implied binary juxtaposition of nation and identity; of gender and class; of work and aesthetic – we will discuss the tools by which artists, educators, designers, and zine-makers from India continually negotiate the long history of feminism, class and the capitalist patriarchal hetero-normative status quo in India and the West. In this panel, we invite you to tap into an emergent feminism from the creative underground of the East. The conversation will seek to uncover how participants deploy their identity through their work, to circulate ideas and address the hybridity of the space’s they inhabit, creatively. Panelists include Shreyas R Krishnan, Vihanga Sontam, and Neha Bhatt. Moderated by Pia Singh.

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Johanna Maierski: Collaboration, Disruption, Production
07:00 PM — 08:00 PM
CABF Program Hall

Colorama [table 120] founder Johanna Maierski presents a talk about old men sitting in cabins, love and unprofessionalism, and bonus selections from her sinister/funny new zine Kaltes Moos.

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SATURDAY
NOVEMBER 17

Bad at Sports LIVE
11:00 AM — 01:00 PM
CABF Program Hall (1st Floor)

Have you ever wondered how the podcast sausages get made? Come on down to see the hosts of Bad at Sports [table 114A] interviewing our own CABF artists and publishers LIVE!

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Yvan Alagbé in conversation with Caroline Picard
02:00 PM — 03:00 PM
CABF Program Hall

Join graphic novelist and Executive Director of Green Lantern Press [table 442], Caroline Picard, in a conversation with artist Yvan Alagbé. At CABF, Alagbé will be celebrating the release of his newest book, Yellow Negroes and other Imaginary Creatures. The collection of comics centers the migrant experience in France, as told through the characters’ struggles with economic precarity, love and relationships, and social and political discrimination.

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Evan Fusco: Language Systems and Fleshy Machines ; an aparallel becoming
03:30 PM — 04:30 PM
CABF Program Hall

A body under stress, activated through careful work of a seemingly meaningless kind. Meanings within meanings activated through misapprehension and malapropisms. Catachrestic moves of word and flesh engaging with each other in ways which are productive and perverse. Foregoing subjectivity for a more fully articulated sense of self situated within sustained communities of rhizomatic relation. Attempting to truly ignore interpellation and see our bodies fully, finding lines of flight through. Large bodies of information slide into chasms and a becoming initiates. The Wasp and the Orchid continue to love themselves and each other. [vendor table: 106A]

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Other Forms: Avid Readers
05:00 PM — 06:00 PM
CABF Program Hall

In celebration of the publication of Counter-Signals 3: All the Way Down with Platforms, Other Forms [table 126A] will assemble friends and acquaintances to read aloud a set of short texts selected from the three issues of journal. Counter-Signals has always been structured as a series of “calls” projected out into the world, inviting a reply. This has not, however, been strictly a dynamic of call-and-response. Instead, and much to our delight, the contributions we've received from authors and published have themselves called out to other readers, both old and new, eliciting further replies of their own from new sources — which often appear as yet another set of calls. Avid Readers, at the Chicago Art Book fair, will give our proverbial readership a chance to speak, in their own voice or in whatever voice they want, extending an invitation to both read and join together, and to respond and call back. A short-run bootleg event supplement will be printed and circulated among the assembled readers.

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Press Press: Sentiments release party
07:00 PM — 09:00 PM
ACRE Projects, 1345 W 19th St

Press Press [table 134] is excited to celebrate the release of their newest publication, Sentiments: Expressions of Cultural Passage, a compilation of conversations, artist projects, and writings exploring cultural passage, immigrant identity, and notions of sanctuary. In addition to Sentiments contributors and community members sharing thier readings, the Press Press team will also do a public reading of the Manifesto for Sanctuary-Building and Sanctuary-Keeping, a collaboratively-built manifesto Press Press has created with immigrants and immigrant-adjacent people through workshops in Baltimore, New York City, and Chicago that highlights various visions of sanctuary and proposes strategies for creating and protecting those visions. Snacks are welcome.

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CABF Official After Party with Candor Arts and Haute to Death
09:00 PM —
MARZ Brewing, 3630 S Iron St

Celebrate year two of CABF in the Marz Brewing exhibition space, currently featuring a selection of handmade publications on life, learning and healing from Chicago publisher Candor Arts [table 138]. Sample the new Booklover’s Brew, a small batch collaboration between Marz and Candor. On the dance floor, move to the sounds of Detroit’s Haute to Death [table 130]. (This event is 21+, free to enter, cash bar).

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SUNDAY
NOVEMBER 18

Bad at Sports LIVE
12:00 PM — 01:00 PM
CABF Program Hall (1st Floor)

Have you ever wondered how the podcast sausages get made? Come on down to see the hosts of Bad at Sports [table 114A] interviewing our own CABF artists and publishers LIVE!

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Edra Soto: Open 24 Hours
02:00 PM — 03:00 PM
Milk Room (2nd Floor)

Open 24 Hours is a response to the littering and collecting of bottles in artist Edra Soto’s neighborhood of East Garfield Park and how it relates to the historic connection between African Americans and cognac through its genesis in the 1930s to contemporary repercussions instigated by hip-hop and rap culture. Join Soto on a guided tour of Open 24 Hours, including an installation of bottles and a presentation of archival material and process. Open 24 Hours is on view throughout the month of November. This exhibition was curated by Johanna Projects, and a related publication is available through Ox-Bow [table 453]

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Chicago Artist Writers present Zachary Cahill: The Black Flame of Paradise
03:00 PM — 03:45 PM
CABF Program Hall

Chicago Artist Writers [table 115B] presents a book reading from the first novel by artist Zachary Cahill, The Black Flame of Paradise. Aligned with Cahill's long-term artistic meditations of nation building, The Black Flame of Paradise is described as personal narrative and social commentary.

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Paint and Polish
04:00 PM — 05:00 PM
CABF Program Hall

Join a conversation with the photographer, publisher, and nail artists behind Paint and Polish, a photo book by Maureen Cooper and released by Onomatopee [table 132], in which a community of nail artists in the Northwest Side of Chicago is celebrated for their vibrant visual and cultural gestures. Sparked by distinction and thriving on its own terms, this economy shares joy equally between client and producer. By wearing its visual code, an individual becomes part of this economic base. The nail artist community even inspires celebrities to share in the pleasures of its culture. The salons comprise mothers and daughters, connected by both birth and mentorship, who have found long-term financial stability through craftsmanship and entrepreneurship. Nail artist Glynnus Alexander will also be present offering services at the Onomatopee table throughout the weekend.

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SATELLITE PROGRAMS

Meet the Press
04:15 PM — 05:45 PM
Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday at Joan Flasch Artists Book Collection, 37 S Wabash Ave

The Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection will be hosting three afternoons of talks with some of the exhibitors from the Chicago Art Book Fair. Stop by during the times below and “meet the press” before the fair in the Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection Reading Room, #508.

Monday, November 12, 4:15-5:30 p.m.
Yvan Alagbé, artist and publisher of Fremok from Belgium

Wednesday, November 14, 4:15-5:30 p.m.
Brad Rohloff of Bred Press
Matthew Sage of Patient Sounds

Thursday November 15, 4:15-5:30 p.m.
Liam Cobb and Iris Erlings of Silica Burn
Joe Kessler of Breakdown Press
Johanna Maierski of Colorama

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Constance DeJong: Candle Night Radios Insomnia
06:00 PM —
Saturday at U of C Swift Hall, 1025 E 58th St

For the opening of her Renaissance Society [table 447] exhibit Let me consider it from here, DeJong presents Candle Night Radios Insomnia, a performance of four nocturnal narratives. “It’s always night, the night is place and state of mind and a sender-receiver ready zone for the person out night walking, frequency hopping. And for the sleepless person in bed, a candle burns, emitting presences, attracting visitors across centuries, keeping time — an inch is an hour on the candle clock.” RSVP requested.

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Nicole Miller and Romi Crawford
07:00 PM — 09:00 PM
Saturday at Sector 2337, 2337 N Milwaukee Ave

The Green Lantern Press [442] is proud to present an evening with Romi Crawford and creative flutist/conceptualist Nicole Mitchell. Celebrating their participation in the On Civil Disobedience pamphlet series, Mitchell will perform a solo work in relationship to her forthcoming pamphlet, Mandorla Awakening: A Conceptual-Quasi-Scientific Experiment to Redesign Our Future and Crawford will read from her pamphlet, Racism and Gestural Disobedience.

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Information

NOVEMBER 16–18
CHICAGO ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION HOTEL
12 S Michigan Ave

Opening Reception:
Friday, Nov. 16: 5p–9p

Fair Hours:
Saturday, Nov. 17: 11a–7p
Sunday, Nov. 18 12p–6p

The Chicago Art Book Fair is an experiment in showcasing emerging directions and diverse legacies within small press arts publishing. The fair features an international group of over 125 arts publishers, small presses, book artists, comics artists, zinemakers and printmakers, with satellite programming and after parties. Beginning in 2017, we drew over 6,000 guests, and in 2018, we look forward to bringing even more of Chicago's people together with another fantastic roster of artist vendors. The Chicago Art Book Fair will once again convene at the historic Chicago Athletic Association, at 12 S. Michigan Avenue.

FUNDRAISING EDITION

3 color screen-print on Rives BFK, 15" x 22" edition of 12, $275 unframed, by Alex Valentine

All proceeds fund CABF staff and programming

View 2017 Gallery

The Chicago Art Book Fair is a project of No Coast (Aay Preston-Myint and Alexander Valentine), a collaborative venture which is equal parts master printer for artists and an affordable, publicly accessible distributor for contemporary art. After our travels around the world to different art book fairs, collections, stores, galleries, and libraries, we hope to bring our experiences of many, varied arts publishing events to Chicago. While Chicago is and has been home to many yearly convenings of print enthusiasts, this is the first following the “Art Book Fair” model that has spread to so many communities in recent years.

ACCESSIBILITY

Our main venue, the Chicago Athletic Association, is ADA compliant. Consult a volunteer on arrival for any assistance with wayfinding. Specific accessibility questions for any of our satellite locations can be directed to us via email (below).

Gender neutral restrooms are available on the second floor of CAA off the Game Room, and by the 4th Floor CABF vending area, Stagg Court.

Parents: please be aware aisles may get crowded especially in the later hours of the fair and it may be difficult to navigate with a stroller. Take note that we do not censor or label our exhibitors' work or our programming, and you may not consider some content suitable for children - please use your best judgment.

WAYS TO PAY

Support our artists and small presses! CABF and all its programs are free to enter but it is a vendor-based event. We run on love but our artists live off sales ;)

It is up to individual exhibitors as to how they will accept payments, but most will be able to accept credit and debit cards via mobile payment technology. If paying cash, ATMs are plentiful in downtown Chicago, but please try to come prepared with small bills.

STAFF

Co-Directors: Imani Jackson, Aay Preston-Myint, Conor Stechschulte & Alexander Valentine

Graphic Design: Platform

Intern: Brooke Lord

Volunteers: Noa Billick, Lindsay Bonavolonta, Tia Borg, Haley Clark, Evan Fusco, Elise Grinkemeyer, Kat Gu, Naomi Hawksley, Victoria Jenkins, Daniel Jimenez, Alex Kessler, Marlo Koch, Will Krauland, Candi Li, Linda Li, Evan Ling, Alexandra Madsen, Ashanti Marshall, Gianna McCarthy, Melody Miller, Emma Punch, Kane Shirley, Esther Son, Kaylee Spears, Kayson Spinazzola, Sarah-Bruce Wisnom
Sera Wu

CONTACT

Email: chicagoabf@gmail.com
Instagram: @chicago_art_book_fair
Facebook Event Page