The NY Art Book Fair Report
November 10—November 29, 2010
This exhibition presents a
survey of the fifth annual NY Art Book Fair organized by Printed Matter, Inc.
and hosted by MoMA PS1.
The 2010 iteration of the fair occured from November 5-7 and filled the entire
building with over 200 international presses, booksellers, antiquarian dealers,
artists and publishers from 20 countries. This report as exhibition showcases a
selection of materials from various book fair participants, including: posters,
prints, multiples, T-shirts, and installations.
Bring
a Book to Trade with IFS, Ltd. at MoMA PS1's NY Art Book Fair Report.
IFS, Ltd. has
extended its book-trading period through to November 29, 2010 at its New York branch in the
first-floor Drawing Gallery of MoMA PS1. IFS, Ltd. invites you to bring a book
to exchange with one of our on-site representatives, thus formalizing your
status as a Shareholder in The Book Trust.
The
Trust, a site-specific publication and installation, was originally presented
at the New York Art Book Fair, November 5-7, 2010. Over the course of that
weekend, Investment Futures Strategy, Ltd., comprised of five graduate students
from the Dept. of Graphic Design at the Yale School of Art, offered an original
publication for trade in a series of barters executed by its authors.
The
Book Trust Prospectus addresses matters of micro-economy and distribution, as
well as prescribed versus perceived value. The project suggests a currency
specific to the setting of the Book Fair: a context in which a distinct set of
commodities is exchanged by like-minded vendors in a finite space and time. It
is only in this setting that a book could be posited as capital-a literal
stand-in for the money that commonly exchanges hands at the Fair. Perceived
worth is thus dictated by a trader's subjective notion of the values they
assign each book. The Book Trust Prospectus is the story of its own
making and financing as well as an evaluation of the context in which it was
made and financed.
Over
the three days of the Fair, the book varied in value as each negotiation
determined its worth in the marketplace. The traded commodities now comprise
The Book Trust-a value-appreciating book bank. By trading with IFS, Ltd.,
participants acquired a single share of the bank, the Prospectus acting
as a document of that transaction. In framing the project in a format
similar to that of a stock exchange, IFS, Ltd. hopes that the Trust emphasizes
the tenuous, abstract value of the book: as a designed object, as a medium for
content, as a traded commodity, and as a symbol of participation in the project
itself.
IFS,
Ltd. is Benjamin Critton, Harry Gassel, Brendan Griffiths, Zak Klauck, and
Mylinh Nguyen.
Online
at www.ifs-l.biz