On the evening of 12 January, INC is organizing a Micro Book Fair as part of the Expanded Publishing Fest at OT301. In this post, we introduce you to the concept of the fair and the work of each participating publisher.
Time: 19:00-21:30 (followed by a club night until 03:00)
Publishers: HumDrumPress, Outline, Platform BK, Starfish Books, Spookstad, Errant Journal, and Valiz
Free entrance, but bring some money and a big bag for those beautiful publications!
Small, independent publishers from the INC community will present their publications and the stories behind their publications. This fair is more informal and more experimental than your average book fair. It takes place alongside a stage program (which can be found here) and is followed by a club night (line-up here). The publishers will be there in person to tell you about their practice, and some of them will join the stage program to talk about the invisible but crucial work behind the final product.
HumDrumPress
HumDrumPress is an experimental publishing project based between Rotterdam and Berlin. Their expanded publishing practice works, through collaborative means, to question the conventions of publishing. In 2023, they published small books on love, collective learning, and commons in art. If you want to learn more about HumDrumPress, we recommend reading ‘A Living, Breathing Manifesto for Publishing the HumDrum Way‘, or coming to the Micro Book Fair and meeting publisher Amy Gowen!
Outline
Outline is a publishing platform and floating collective that aims to create interventions within intermediate spaces, and accelerate an exchange by connecting ideas, artefacts, individuals and localities. They produce scavenged booklets during residencies, radio streams, mixtapes, and event-based instant publications. At the Micro Book Fair, Jan-Pieter ‘t Hart and Tjobo Kho will be presenting the work of Outline along with that of people from their community.
Platform BK
Platform BK researches the role of art in society and takes action for a better art policy. They represent artists, curators, designers, critics, and other cultural producers. To support activism, lobbying, and discursive development, they publish essays, open letters, readers, and reports. At the Micro Book Fair, you can pick up some of their publications, or find out how to print your own from co-director Jeannette Slütter.
Starfish Books
Starfish Books is a cheeky publisher of fiction and non-fiction. They go against the grain and reject hypes, yet stay in touch with the Zeitgeist to confront readers with new and surprising insights. Their books are brutal and humorous, often hard to read, but always accessible. Starfish exclusively publishes books in Dutch (often translations of international authors). At the Micro Book Fair, publisher Menno Grootveld will be presenting his extensive collection.
Spookstad
Uitgeverij Spookstad (Ghost Town) is a new publisher. It has so far published one (important) book: Pak Mokum Terug, on squatting in Amsterdam today. The Spookstad collective will be present at the Micro Book Fair to sell you a copy and tell more about the relationship between squatting and publishing.
Errant Journal
Errant is a cultural-political journal published irregularly (max twice a year) by Irene De Craen in collaboration with Framer Framed. Errant is inspired by Édouard Glissant’s notion of the Poetics of Relation, which opposes ideas of centers, linearity, roots, and dichotomy. It is never Errant’s goal to know everything or to understand something entirely. Instead, a person who is ‘errant’ rejects the universal and challenges the idea that the world is transparent and explainable. Next to the journal, Errant publishes a podcast and miscellaneous publications like A Very Short and Incomplete Guide to Subversive Publishing. Irene De Craen will be present at the Micro Book Fair to share the results.
Valiz
Valiz is an independent international publisher based in Amsterdam, which puts out books on contemporary art, theory, critique, design, and urban affairs. Their books offer critical reflection, and interdisciplinary inspiration, and often establish a connection between cultural disciplines and socio-political questions. They publish these books out of our commitment to their content, to artistic and social issues, and to the artists, designers, and authors. Apart from publishing, Valiz organizes lectures, debates, and other cultural projects in which relevant topics in contemporary art are explored.