Four Must-See Pittsburgh-Based Projects at This Year’s Art Book Fair
After a joyful and energizing first event in 2023, the Pittsburgh Art Book Fair is so excited to return to Carnegie Museum of Art for our second annual event on September 28 and 29. This year, we’re welcoming over 70 exhibitors — artists and publishers traveling from across the country, the Netherlands, Canada, and, of course, from every corner of Pittsburgh, too.
The art book fair is a special way to connect with artists and publishers whose work you may not otherwise find in Pittsburgh, build community and expand your creative horizons, and support exhibitors through purchasing their work. It’s also an opportunity for all of us to be a part of the international culture of art book fairs.
Here are a few of the Pittsburgh-based projects you can engage with this weekend:
Bekezela Mguni
Bekezela Mguni is a queer Trinidadian artist, cultural worker, and librarian. She is the founder of the Black Unicorn Library and Archives Project, a Black queer feminist community library and cultural intervention, cultivating possibilities and freedom. Mguni, the Library’s founder, will be exhibiting at PABF 2024 with publications of her own, including hand-made, quilted fabric zines, hand-bound screen-printed journals, and prints on handmade paper. She will also exhibit a special collection from the Library that celebrates the literary and artistic contributions of Black women, queer, Trans, non-binary, and gender-nonconforming people.
Justseeds Artists’ Cooperative
Justseeds is a decentralized network of 41 artists committed to social, environmental, and political engagement, working from the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. Founded in 1998, Justseeds’ distribution center for prints, publications, and more is based in Pittsburgh. Each year, they produce portfolios of art prints by Justseeds artists and allies that address social and environmental issues. The collective also contributes graphics to grassroots struggles for justice, and details current art and resistance projects around the world.
Tree News
Tree News is a newsletter and programming platform focusing on tree and forest stories as entry points into discussions of ecological orientations in art practice, cultural relationships to the natural world, environmental justice, and climate change adaptation. They were a visitor favorite at the fair last year, and this year, Erin Mallea and Paper Buck will launch Issue No. 5 in collaboration with Travis Mitzel — all about the Spotted Lanternfly’s arrival to Pennsylvania and spread in North America.
(___)blankspace
(___)blankspace is a project space located in Wilkinsburg, facilitated by Joey Behrens. This year, Behrens will exhibit publications created in collaboration with artists who have participated in projects at (___)blankspace from June 2023 - June 2024, with documentation of their work — and turning these projects into a print project of their own.
Want to support the volunteer team of co-organizers?
Come to the fair and purchase a fundraising edition hanky made by Pittsburgh-based artists Melissa Catanese and Jacques Beas. Melissa Catanese is a founder of Spaces Corners, an artist-run photography bookshop and project space located in Troy Hill. Jacques Beas is an illustrator based in Pittsburgh by way of Cleveland. His art explores the eroticism of queer bodies, often portrayed in surreal and impossible contorted states of ecstasy. Can’t make it to the fair but want to show us some love? Make a donation on our Ko-fi.
Pittsburgh Art Book Fair. Sat., Sept. 28-Sun., Sept. 29. Carnegie Museum of Art, Oakland. See a full list of exhibitors here.