Art Metropole

#14590

ARTISTS WHO DO BOOK TABLES

Artist

Kathy Slade

Price

$15.00

Date

2021

Publisher

Art Metropole

Format

Posters

Size

28.6 × 22.7 in

Genre

Art Metropole Edition

ARTISTS WHO DO BOOK TABLES (2021) is a new fundraising poster edition for Art Metropole by Vancouver artist Kathy Slade.

Slade’s work is based on Ed Ruscha’s 1976 drawing ARTISTS WHO DO BOOKS, which was originally produced by the artist at a time when the idea of books and other documents standing as works of art in their own right was still a relatively new concept. Forty-five years later, the artist’s book proliferates. So too does the art book fair, since the advent of the New York Art Book Fair, developed by Printed Matter, Inc. in 2006, then under the direction of artist (and Art Metropole co-founder) AA Bronson.

Slade humorously offers an updated proposition to Ruscha’s original work. While the subjects of artist-curators and artist-publishers are well documented, less often do we acknowledge that, as important avenues for the dissemination of books by artists and small independent presses, art book fairs are largely organized and staffed by practicing artists, and that their selections and presentations at book fairs might rightly be considered extensions of their own art practices. Slade’s practice, not coincidentally, includes writing, curating, publishing, and bookselling.

The poster edition is produced using a custom version of the Futura font, drawn by designer Stephan Garneau, to mimic the hand-drawn rendering in Ruscha’s original work. The poster also shares the same dimensions as the original, but is produced as a 4-colour black offset poster rather than the original chalk pastel.

Edition of 1000