22nd International contemporary artists’ book fair

Held at The Tetley since 2014 and co-curated with PAGES, the book fair coincides with the weekend of The Hepworth Wakefield’s print fair. The longest-running artists’ book fair outside of London was a perfect chance to meet and chat with artists, collectives, publishers and imprints.

Arts Council England supported PAGES to deliver a ‘new voices’ programme. Three emerging artists – Teanne Buxton, Sufea Mohamad Noor and Sam Hutchinson – each developed and produced a book with funding support and guidance from three mentors. The development and final book, along with others selected from the fair, went on tour after the Book Fair to Rotherham Open Arts Renaissance, The Cooper Gallery and Doncaster Museum and Art Gallery.

Shy Bairns: Zine workshop
Saturday, 1–4pm, free, drop-in. Learning Studio, second floor
Shy Bairns is the collaborative practice of artists, designers and curators Izzy Kroese, Erin Blamire, Eleanor Haswell and George Gibson, established in 2016. They led a workshop exploring self-publishing and collaborative practice, with participants producing a collaborative printed zine through a series of written and drawn responses around the themes of the book fair.

Reverie One: Listen to the book fair
Both days, 1pm, 1.30pm, 2pm & 2.30pm, free, drop-in.
Inspired by the ‘Blind Man’ scene from Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s film The Fabulous Destiny of Amélie Poulain (2001), NarratorReverie One: Listen to the book fair allowed volunteer visitors to have an alternative book fair experience by ‘viewing’ together with the accompaniment and narration of the artist/performer (Zejun Yao). Each performance adopted a different walking pace, lasting between 5–10 minutes each.

Found fiction
Found fiction is a guerrilla publishing community that prints and distributes short stories. When browsing the book fair, you could spot some Found fiction around our building.

Sumi Perera: Keynote talk
Saturday, 7pm, £3-£5, booking essential.
Our keynote speaker Sumi Perera is an interdisciplinary artist whose interactive work draws on her background as a doctor and scientist. She creates multiple series from a set of plates by combining hybrid printmaking techniques with stitch and computer numerical controlled methods. Her work has received international awards and is held in many public collections including the Tate Britain, V&A Museum, Ashmolean, Oxford and Yale Centre for British Art.

Empty your pockets’ book and printmaking workshop
Sunday, 1-4pm, free, sign up on the day, over 11s
Learning Studio, second floor
In this workshop you could learn how to make a fold-out book using two types of printing technique – linoprinting and monoprinting – by using the objects from your pockets to create your book. Artist and printmaker, Ruth Fettis, led the workshop.

Plus much more.