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Beacon Photo Club to host second book arts fair
According to the authorities, the definition of an art book (aka artist's book) is serious stuff.
For Printed Matter, a nonprofit bookstore in Manhattan, they are "publications conceived as artworks in their own right." The Center for Book Arts calls them "artistic practices related to the book itself as an art object."
Of the 28 vendors exhibiting at the Art Book Fair at the VFW Hall in Beacon on May 16, 13 live in the city or nearby. This is the second iteration of what the Beacon Photo Club intends to be an annual event, according to Emma McDonald Diamond, who founded the group.
Broadly, the genre ranges from black-and-white zines to uber-elaborate permutations that make a paperback look like a cave painting.
"What binds them is that they're self-published," says Chiara Di Lello, co-founder of the collective Little Histories, which will be there.
One creator is Jennifer Lauren Smith, who will share her Weeping European Beech Baby Sleep Tonic. Her website reveals precise details about the binding, paper, color plates and cover, which is giclee on Hahnemühle Photo Rag. All 15 editions were printed, engraved and bound in Beacon.
The reception is positive: Reed College will acquire an edition for its art collection (Smith is an alum), and another will be displayed at the Griffin Museum of Photography in Massachusetts beginning June 12.
Smith just completed a month-long Interlude Artist residency in Hudson and is in the second year of The Photobook, a long-term residency program with the Penumbra Foundation.
"The books are so laborious and precious, I'm almost embarrassed," she says. "But that's why they're expensive [$200 each]. I work in sculpture, so I'm a craftsperson, and I take the materials seriously."
Little Histories will present zines with themes, such as using Wordle guesses to create the text. There's also one based on crosswords, says Di Lello, who previously created a formal art book exhibited at a Brooklyn show.
The members of Little Histories, including co-founder Chelsea Mize, write personalized poems on the spot with a typewriter, hammering away at a piece of gray paper. "We talk with the person — I call it 'intake' — and figure out where their head is at, and if it's intended for them or someone else," says Di Lello. "They come back later and pick it up. They're not hovering over us."
Andrea Moed, a ceramicist, is bringing zines along with hand-drawn comics. The cover of no costume depicts the view from her front door, including the porch, power lines, a pickup truck and her neighbors' houses. Her plans include Street Furniture of Beacon, New York, which will feature "a lot of weird stuff beyond the dummy light" in Beacon, she says. "At the foot of Mount Beacon, near the bus stop, there's some mutant, non-functioning contraption with four prongs."
Moed also is a paper engineer (think pop-up books) using the digital Cricut machine at the Desmond-Fish Public library in Garrison to create little lamps.
Scrawled on the walls of her studio are instructions for improving panels of her comic Monoculture, along with affirmations like "Less Think More Draw!!!" sketched out in colorful bubble letters.
"Many people are tired of being online, and the pendulum is swinging back to tangible interests and hobbies," says McDonald Diamond. "CDs, vinyl records, cassettes and shooting photos with film are making a comeback, and this event reflects all that."
The VFW Hall is located at 413 Main St. in Beacon. The Art Book Fair is scheduled for May 16 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is free and open to all ages. See beaconphotoclub.com/2026-beacon-art-book-fair.
According to the authorities, the definition of an art book (aka artist's book) is serious stuff.
For Printed Matter, a nonprofit bookstore in Manhattan, they are "publications conceived as artworks in their own right." The Center for Book Arts calls them "artistic practices related to the book itself as an art object."
Of the 28 vendors exhibiting at the Art Book Fair at the VFW Hall in Beacon on May 16, 13 live in the city or nearby. This is the second iteration of what the Beacon Photo Club intends to be an annual event, according to Emma McDonald Diamond, who founded the group.
Broadly, the genre ranges from black-and-white zines to uber-elaborate permutations that make a paperback look like a cave painting.
"What binds them is that they're self-published," says Chiara Di Lello, co-founder of the collective Little Histories, which will be there.
One creator is Jennifer Lauren Smith, who will share her Weeping European Beech Baby Sleep Tonic. Her website reveals precise details about the binding, paper, color plates and cover, which is giclee on Hahnemühle Photo Rag. All 15 editions were printed, engraved and bound in Beacon.
The reception is positive: Reed College will acquire an edition for its art collection (Smith is an alum), and another will be displayed at the Griffin Museum of Photography in Massachusetts beginning June 12.
Smith just completed a month-long Interlude Artist residency in Hudson and is in the second year of The Photobook, a long-term residency program with the Penumbra Foundation.
"The books are so laborious and precious, I'm almost embarrassed," she says. "But that's why they're expensive [$200 each]. I work in sculpture, so I'm a craftsperson, and I take the materials seriously."
Little Histories will present zines with themes, such as using Wordle guesses to create the text. There's also one based on crosswords, says Di Lello, who previously created a formal art book exhibited at a Brooklyn show.
The members of Little Histories, including co-founder Chelsea Mize, write personalized poems on the spot with a typewriter, hammering away at a piece of gray paper. "We talk with the person — I call it 'intake' — and figure out where their head is at, and if it's intended for them or someone else," says Di Lello. "They come back later and pick it up. They're not hovering over us."
Andrea Moed, a ceramicist, is bringing zines along with hand-drawn comics. The cover of no costume depicts the view from her front door, including the porch, power lines, a pickup truck and her neighbors' houses. Her plans include Street Furniture of Beacon, New York, which will feature "a lot of weird stuff beyond the dummy light" in Beacon, she says. "At the foot of Mount Beacon, near the bus stop, there's some mutant, non-functioning contraption with four prongs."
Moed also is a paper engineer (think pop-up books) using the digital Cricut machine at the Desmond-Fish Public library in Garrison to create little lamps.
Scrawled on the walls of her studio are instructions for improving panels of her comic Monoculture, along with affirmations like "Less Think More Draw!!!" sketched out in colorful bubble letters.
"Many people are tired of being online, and the pendulum is swinging back to tangible interests and hobbies," says McDonald Diamond. "CDs, vinyl records, cassettes and shooting photos with film are making a comeback, and this event reflects all that."
The VFW Hall is located at 413 Main St. in Beacon. The Art Book Fair is scheduled for May 16 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is free and open to all ages. See beaconphotoclub.com/2026-beacon-art-book-fair.