Vancouver Art Book Fair (VABF) presents its first in-person edition since 2019, hosted at the Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre from July 26–27, 2024. This year, Canada’s longest-running international art book fair features 80+ exhibitors from across the country and worldwide.
This year’s list of exhibitors includes 51 Personae (Shanghai), occur e-flux (NYC), Femme Art Review (London, ON), Hotam Press (Vancouver), and Norsk Risoforening (Oslo), among many others. Julian Yi-Zhong Hou will perform, among others.
Additional programs include a special reading by Cathy Busby of excerpts from Garry Kennedy’s new posthumously produced publications. The Vancouver Art Gallery will co-sponsor a panel discussion on zines as an extension of their current exhibition, Copy Machine Manifestos: Artists Who Make Zines. Outside the hall, the Roundhouse Turntable Plaza will feature a food truck and DJs providing music throughout the fair.
New to the fair is a day-long symposium on July 28 at Emily Carr University about art publishing. As exhibitors often miss the opportunity to connect with others
while they work the fair, the symposium will offer time and space to foster essential conversations and collaborations. Panels will focus on magazines, art criticism, distribution, funding, and more. Speakers include Anton Vidokle and Brian Kuan Wood, co-founders of e-flux Journal; Blair Swann, executive director of Art Metropole (Toronto), one of the world’s earliest artist-run bookstores; Emmy Catedral, curator of public programs and bookstore for New York’s Center for Art, Research and Alliances; Vancouver-based writer Jacquelyn Zong-Li Ross, and more.
Admission is free and open to all. The complete list of exhibitors and the symposium program will be published at 2024.vancouverartbookfair.com.
Select talks and events will be live-streamed on YouTube.