VANCOUVER
ART BOOK FAIR

A Digital Fair

Vancouver Art Book Fair (VABF) is a non-profit organization committed to the advancement, appreciation and circulation of artists’ publishing. The full-scale VABF returns in October 2023, after taking a year off to reimagine itself.

The Program

VABF’s 2021 Program was curated by Eloisa Aquino of B&D Press in Montreal, Canada, and features publishers and artists from Vancouver and around the world. Events are live-streamed on the Program page.

Photograph from VABF 2019, the foreground of the image has heads of multiple seated people listening to a panel discussion of four individuals, the focus of the image is on the fourth panelist who is using their hands to emphasize what they are speaking about as the other panelists look towards them. Two blank white boards are on the wall behind the panel.

Photograph from VABF 2019, perspective from over the shoulder of a person holding a zine. Their arm shows a dark denim jacket and some bracelets. The zine is white paper and black text that is not legible. The out of focus background has green carpet with white dots and few other zines (orange, pink, blue) lying on the ground.

Art Book Month

Art Book Month is a parallel series of events hosted in spaces locally in Vancouver, nationally and internationally by artists, curators, collectives and institutions who are actively creating and presenting work in this medium.

Stay tuned, ABM will take place in October 2022.

Become a Member

Join the VABF Club! Your membership will create a space for artists on local, national and global platforms, allowing us to act as a hub for artists’ publishing. Starting at $20 CAD your membership includes awesome perks each year!

Become a Member

We Love
Our Partners

VABF gratefully acknowledges that our annual activities take place on the unceded and traditional territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səl̓ílwətaʔɬ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.

Where are you located?

xʷməθkʷəy̓əmMusqueam
Sḵwx̱wú7meshSquamish
səl̓ílwətaʔɬ/SelilwitulhTsleil-Waututh

2021 Exhibitors

2021 PROGRAM RECAP: ⁠⁠Chimurenga Chronic, Chimurenga⁠
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Streamed live on Oct 24, 2021, watch on Youtube! (link in bio)⁠
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A discussion on the publishing practices at Chimurenga and how the aim of these activities is not just to produce new knowledge, but rather to express the intensities of our world, to capture those forces and take action. This has required a stretching of the boundaries, for unless we push form and content beyond what exists, then we merely reproduce the original form—the colonized form if you will. It requires not only a new set of questions but its own set of tools—new practices and methodologies that allow us to engage the lines of flight, of fragility, the precariousness, as well as the joy, creativity and beauty that defines contemporary Africa.⁠
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VANCOUVERARTBOOKFAIR.COM⁠
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#VancouverArtBookFair #VABF2021 #VABF #virtualartbookfair #artbookfair #vancouver

2021 PROGRAM RECAP: ⁠Remembering LB City, Hyperlink Press⁠
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Streamed live on Oct 23, 2021, watch on Youtube! (link in bio)⁠
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Hyperlink Press will share their practice on the accessibility of zines, Korean queer/feminist history archive, and their long-term project series “Remembering LB City,” which was a South Korean cyber lesbian utopia from two decades ago. Reminiscing about the early 2000s, their practice seeks to discuss exciting alternatives to traditional forms of community building for a more equitable world.⁠
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#VancouverArtBookFair #VABF2021 #VABF #virtualartbookfair #artbookfair #vancouver

2021 PROGRAM RECAP: Reading and translation groups on independent editorial work, Ana Luiza Fonseca and Tanja Baudoin⁠
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Streamed live on Oct 23, 2021, watch on Youtube! (link in bio) ⁠
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“Reading and translation groups on independent editorial work” is organized by tijuana, in partnership with the platform par(ent)esis.⁠
In 2020 and 2021, facing a situation in which the possibility for face-to-face exchanges was far off, tijuana proposed virtual meetings to deepen independent editorial work, in which texts in Portuguese, English and Spanish formed the basis for debates on what, how and why to publish. The exercise of reading extended to a collaborative translation of writings that put forward the essence of the act of publishing independently. Registration was free and open to all levels of Portuguese, English and Spanish.⁠
They started with the text “Sabão” by Fabio Morais, a portrait of the Brazilian history of publishing, and continued with a manual for self-publishing edited by Banca Carrocinha. In 2021, they carried on with a love letter to independent publications written by the North American artist Tia Blassingame, and an essay on the politics and economy of independent publishing by Mexican editor Nicolas Pradilla.⁠
Each text has been translated into another language. The translations of the four publications are available online, free to be downloaded, enjoyed, shared and printed in a simple and accessible way in your home.⁠
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VANCOUVERARTBOOKFAIR.COM⁠
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2021 PROGRAM RECAP: ⁠Resistance salad, a collective recipe, Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo & Jade Mara Novarino⁠
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Streamed live on Oct 23, 2021, watch on Youtube! (link in bio)⁠
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Let’s gather around a virtual table together, chop, write, peel, draw and build a community sustenance and resistance meal. What do you bring to the table? What do you take? What’s nourishing you these days? Feeding your grieving body? What’s giving you the energy to keep going? What does liberation taste like? How do you learn from the land around you? During this hour-long gathering, join Jade and Lukaza as they guide you through a score of ingredients, preparation, eating and sharing. Bring texts, poems, pictures—ingredients of your own—to share at the table. They will take thirty minutes to prepare themselves a meal and thirty minutes to come together and share space.⁠
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VANCOUVERARTBOOKFAIR.COM⁠
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#VancouverArtBookFair #VABF2021 #VABF #virtualartbookfair #artbookfair #vancouver

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