Art books and zines I grabbed at the Printed Matter fair

Last weekend was Printed Matter’s Art Book Fair. It’s such an important and necessary event because it reminds me we’re out here in the REAL WORLD. Despite it all there are still artists and ideas that exist outside of videos on TikTok asking how to break in selvedge denim.

People who don’t read books love to brag about not reading books. For them, there’s Pinterest. For me, there are books on Japanese love hotels.

I ❤️ not having my phone on me and now I have an L.A. person type of excuse…my bad, I was out on my chaise reading a book at 2pm on a Wednesday. Here’s what I found at this year’s fair…a collection that’s cool and sad and explicit and bizarre.

1. Snow, Sohrab Hura

Snow catalogues the Indian-administered region of Kashmir’s three distinct phases of its winter: Chillai Kalan (harsh cold), Chillai Khurd (small cold), and Chillai Bache (baby cold). Sohrab Hura shot these over a five-year period, his last visit was cut short when a siege ensued.

From the book, “Kashmir has always been promoted as a tourist destination, a paradise for Indian nationals to experience snow, even as it remains one of the most militarised areas in the world.”

2. Go-Go Tats zine, photographed by TheTruLove

“My job is night work. Everyone has a working lifespan, just like a flower that will wither with time.”- Koi.

An intimate view into the lives of Thailand’s Go-Go and bar girls, told through their back tattoos. The photographer spent the time to get to know these women, there are interviews between dancers, and all proceeds go to Swing Thailand, a non-governmental organization advocating for sex workers’ rights. The artistry and visibility of these tattoos offer a surprisingly revealing viewpoint. Within an industry of extremes, they speak to something softer… spirituality, personal expression, fashion, or simply art for art’s sake.

3. Coming and Going, Jim Goldberg

   Photographer Jim Goldberg’s visual memoir spanning four decades. Told through photos, letters, diary entries, and ephemera. Pieces are cut, altered and reassembled, telling the story of Jim’s family. I love his collage style. Raw, intimate and impossible to forget.

4. No Parking, Alfonso Gonzalez Jr

   This book is fascinating and indelible. I have to copy the synopsis because it just clicks. “In Los Angeles, vehicles are everywhere—rushing across freeways, tucked along crowded streets, or abandoned to rust. In this exhibition, cars become proxies for the people who move through the city, their stories embedded in metal, paint, and dust. Gonzalez Jr. focuses his attention on fire-gutted vans, graffitied pickup trucks, overstuffed RVs, and stationary food trucks. No human figures appear, yet their presence is palpable. These vehicles stand as silent witnesses to labor, survival, and lives lived. And the car itself becomes a central icon of Los Angeles modernity.”

5. Mixed Signals, a zine by Brookes Reeder

   I’m a zine freak what can I say. The zine section of this book fair is so insanely cool, anything goes over there. I meander around until I feel called to something. These photos, by Brookes Reeder, just aligned. I was into the abrupt Vegas shots, googie signage and busted old gas stations. These photos feel lived in and true. Leagues beyond a photo dump of an easter egg colored trash can or whatever the kids are posting these days. He was running the booth, I was able to talk with him for a second, and learn that he assembles and binds all of his zines himself. Always scope out the zines!

6. Hotel Mejiro Emperor, Ayumi Nabe

   An encyclopedia of active and abandoned Japanese love hotels. The creativity of these spaces is limitless. Remarkable as pure interior design, even more so when you remember what they’re actually for. To me, its like a bunch of Madonna Inns with much different extracurriculars. All of the love hotels featured were designed during the Showa era, from the 1960s to the 1980s.

7. Lords of the Road, self published

   A collection of motorcycle club “courtesy cards,” handed out to people who in some way had been helpful to a club member. Crazy to see. I had this book prior to the Palisades fire and never thought I’d see it again. Grabbed the last one (could’ve been the only one) at the fair.

8. 20’s Street Style Journal / #1 Not Plastic Fashion, Yutaro Saito

   Where high fashion absorbs contrasting elements like “elderly fashion” and anti-fashion.

I love Saito’s point on how fashion is perceived and decided upon through social media. He wrote, “Clothing is understood as an image before it ever touches the body.” The structure of clothing today imitates plastic, it is mundane, mass-produced, the value comes later once it acquires a sign. Fashion was visceral. Today it is a RealReal wishlist of things that literally do not matter. It’s Polyester touching your skin and you couldn’t care less. He has a much more considered perspective. I am an angry old man that wishes people could get it right.

9. Two Bread & Puppet zines

   Bread and Puppet is the way!! I was so excited to see their exhibition at the book fair. If you are not familiar:

Founded in 1963 by Peter and Elka Schumann in New York City, the Bread and Puppet Theater is a politically radical, community-based puppet troupe famous for large-scale, paper-mâché puppets that protest war and injustice. The name reflects their philosophy, art should be as essential as daily bread, and their tradition of serving free, homemade sourdough bread with performances. In 1974, the troupe moved to Glover, Vermont, where they continue to produce shows and maintain a puppet museum.

They make really amazing, actually excellent prints as well as books/zines/ephemera with powerful messages on the world we live in today. Bread and Puppet is crucial! I highly recommend checking out their website, it will evolve your life (I bought some of their posters too).

10. Conspiracy Index, Savithri Velaga

    The intention of this book isn’t to make fun of your retired police officer neighbor. It is meant to demonstrate the similarities in conspiracy content throughout American history. I love this point, “There is no composite personality of the conspiracy believer. They are individuals who submit to the same psychological biases we all do; everyone is more or less conspiratorial.” This feels like a necessary read for everyone. When did we stop trying to understand those around us? When it got too extreme? How do we even define that today? I dated a flat Earther once, it was weird but who am I to judge.

Pick up a book!! It will change your life.

-Q