Organized by Christopher Sleboda, Associate Professor of Art, Graphic Design, and the BU Graphic Design MFA and BFA programs, Multiple Formats: Contemporary Art Book Symposium and Book Fair weaves together conversations about artist books and higher education, pedagogical practices involving artist books, artist advocacy, and artist book distribution, collection, and access.
The 2024 edition of Multiple Formats includes a day of workshops, panels, and presentations on Friday, March 22, followed by an artist book fair on Saturday, March 23. The keynote speaker, Ashley James, Associate Curator of Contemporary Art at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, kicks off the symposium on Thursday, March 21 at 7pm. Dr. James most recently curated Going Dark: The Contemporary Figure at the Edge of Visibility, currently on view at the Guggenheim.
“Artist book fairs are increasingly popular events across the world, bringing together people to celebrate artistic expression, the form of the book as a vessel for cultural exchange, and so much more. As national and international fairs become more competitive, regional and local fairs offer opportunities for practitioners and students to exchange best practices and learn from one another,” says Sleboda. “Even as book fairs have thrived, however, the scholarly and critical environment around them and the genre of artist books continues to require support. Multiple Formats seeks to address this need, recognizing the need for ongoing attention to this evolving field.”
As national and international book fairs become more competitive, regional and local fairs offer opportunities for practitioners and students to exchange best practices and learn from one another. Even as book fairs have thrived, however, the scholarly and critical environment around them and the genre of artist books continues to require support. Multiple Formats seeks to address this need, recognizing the need for ongoing attention to this evolving field.
Intended to be an elastic and inclusive forum for discussions about artist book publishing, Multiple Formats pays particular attention to publishing by graphic designers, the use and creation of artist books in visual arts programs, publishing as a personal and collaborative process, and other topics of interest.
The event serves to build community and strengthen creative networks, bringing together students, faculty, alums, artists, librarians, collectors, and scholars from Boston and beyond. It also creates a hub for research and sharing of work and substantive discussions about sustainable creative practices that include artist books.
Symposium programming on Friday, March 22 includes Risograph workshops with Panayiotis Terzis (RisoLab, Mega Press); Alex Luciano (Cowboy Press), and Robert Baxter; a bookbinding workshop with Esther K Smith of Purgatory Press, author of Make Books Now; and a short-form presentation panel with more than a dozen publishers, artists, and designers talking about specific publishing projects and aspects of their practice. Additional collaborative teaching and making opportunities are also scheduled.
This year’s Multiple Formats Art Book Fair will host more than 125 exhibitors, including students, staff, and faculty from Boston University, MassArt, MIT, Tufts, the University of Connecticut, East Carolina University, Texas State, Pratt, SAIC, Dartmouth, RISD, Yale, Cranbrook, as well as a number of other art and design programs.
All events of Multiple Formats are free and open to the general public.
For the Symposium schedule and a detailed list of Fair Exhibitors…
visit the official multiple formats website
MULTIPLE FORMATS: CONTEMPORARY ART BOOK SYMPOSIUM AND ART BOOK FAIR
Presented by Boston University School of Visual Arts
Event Dates, Times & Locations
Keynote Speaker & Tuesday Night Lecture Series event featuring Ashley James, Associate Curator of Contemporary Art, Guggenheim Museum
Thursday, March 21
7pm
808 Commonwealth Avenue • Room 410 & 411
Register here (few tickets left)
Contemporary Art Book Symposium
Friday, March 22
11am – 5:30pm
808 Commonwealth Avenue • Rooms 409, 410 & 411, and GD Studio
Art Book Fair
Saturday, March 23
11am – 6pm
808 Gallery at 808 Commonwealth Avenue
FREE ADMISSION
All talks and panels of Multiple Formats are free and open to the public. Workshops may require prior registration. The book fair, taking place on Saturday, March 23, has free admission and is open to all ages.
PARKING/TRANSPORTATION INFORMATION
808 Commonwealth Avenue is accessible by the MBTA Green Line, taking the B line to the Amory Street station. Limited street parking is available on and around Commonwealth Avenue. Please visit BU’s Transportation website for a list of public parking lots near 808 Commonwealth Avenue.
PUBLISHING BY GRAPHIC DESIGNERS, USE AND CREATION OF ARTIST BOOKS, AND MORE
Intended to be an elastic and inclusive forum for discussions about artist book publishing, Multiple Formats pays particular attention to publishing by graphic designers, the use and creation of artist books in visual arts programs, publishing as a personal and collaborative process, and other topics of interest.
The event serves to build community and strengthen creative networks, bringing together students, faculty, alums, artists, librarians, collectors, and scholars from Boston and beyond. It also creates a hub for research and sharing of work and substantive discussions about sustainable creative practices that include artist books.
Founded in 1839, Boston University is an internationally recognized institution of higher education and research. With more than 34,000 students, it is the fourth-largest independent university in the United States. BU consists of 17 schools and colleges, along with a number of multi-disciplinary centers and institutes integral to the University’s research and teaching mission. In 2012, BU joined the Association of American Universities (AAU), a consortium of 62 leading research universities in the United States and Canada. Learn more at bu.edu.
Established in 1954, Boston University College of Fine Arts (CFA) is a community of artist-scholars and scholar-artists who are passionate about the fine and performing arts, committed to diversity and inclusion, and determined to improve the lives of others through art. With programs in Music, Theatre, and Visual Arts, CFA prepares students for a meaningful creative life by developing their intellectual capacity to create art, shift perspective, think broadly, and master relevant skills. CFA offers a wide array of undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral programs, as well as a range of online degrees and certificates. Learn more at bu.edu/cfa.
Boston University College of Fine Arts School of Visual Arts prepares students to think seriously, to see critically, to make intensely, and to act with creative agency in the contemporary world. The School of Visual Arts merges the intensive studio education of an art school with the opportunities of a large urban university, and is committed to educating the eye, hand, and mind of the artist. With rigorous graduate and undergraduate fine art programs that are rooted in studio practice, CFA School of Visual Arts provides highly motivated students with programs in the bedrock disciplines, of the fine arts coupled with a vast array of electives and liberal arts opportunities.
