The Books Are Bridges Art Book Fest returns to the S.N.V. community gardens!

Join our Fabulous Art Book Fest with +30 international and local artist publishers*, who present their latest publications at the Clubhouse of SNV community gardens in Rotterdam-West. 

The Art Book Fest is the place for those who love artists’ publications – from books to zines, from toolkits to experimental projects. In addition to tables with the latest releases, there will be book presentations, workshops, food and music. Everyone is welcome!

Books are Bridges Program:

12.00 – 17.00 Art Book Fest – Publishers present their work in and around the club house of SNV  

Bookpresentations:

• 13.00 -16.00 Ongoing audio book presentation: Flametti, or the dandyism of the poor, a novel by Hugo Ball, translated and read by Catherine Schelbert by FGA / edition fink 
• 13.30 -14.30 Book presentations we are all extremophiles by David Habets &
• NETbook Touched by Mushrooms by Eline Vis and PrintRoom
• 15.00 Book presentations Chinees-Indisch Restaurant Stickeralbum by Benjamin Li and Scanned Football Photos by Maurice van Es 

Worskhops:

• 13.00 – 13.10 Midnight Wellness Retreat workout with Kexin Hao
• 13.00 – 14.00 and 15.00 – 16.00 Printing the Garden (all ages) with Ewoud van Rijn & Fraser Muggeridge
• 13.00 – 13.10 Midnight Wellness Retreat workout with Kexin Hao
• 14.00 – 15.00 Making a landscape (all ages) with José Quintanar

All afternoon: 

• Music by Bergur Anderson &  Linus Bonduelle 
• Food by Eathouse 

BAB Art Book Fest 2023 –

top left: book tables (during the storm), right: book presentation and tea tasting || bottom left: breakfast by Artists in Solidarity (raising money for victims of the earth quake in Turkey), right: presentation and demonstration NETbook Walton Flax Exchange, with gardeners and publishers.

12, 13, 14 July: The Books Are Bridges Summit

The Books Are Bridges Art Book Fest is organised within the scope of the third Books Are Bridges Summit – a small-scale gathering for artist publishers with space for connection, exchange of ideas and DIY workshops, spread across locations in Rotterdam: from the gardens to the docks. 

For this edition, we invited colleague spaces for artist books and social spaces for artist publishing, next to a number of artist publishers. We bring together multiple generations of publishing spaces – from initiatives that have started in the 80s to younger spaces, amongst which are einBuch.haus (Berlin, DE), Northing Space (Bergen, NO), Lendroit (Rennes, FR), Handshake® Books (Valencia, ES), Common Imprint (Berlin, DE), Limestone Books (Maastricht, NL), Colorama (Berlin, DE) and Boekie Woekie (Amsterdam, NL).

Coming to Rotterdam from various countries in Europe by train, they all bring their unique experiences and methods of making the work of artist publishers public. During the first two days of the Summit, we’ll present, listen, have conversations on how we organise, connect, support each other and how we are in turn supported. We look at ways to involve a wider audience in our publishing projects and discuss methods to create new connections, also outside of our field.

Next to discussing these questions, presentations, shared meals and exercises, we will do a bike tour, guided by artist publisher José Quintanar. The conversations of this gathering will be made public in the publication Summit Up #3 later this year.