NY Art Book Fair

The New York Art Book Fair, run by zine store Printed Matter is always a great event to catch up with new and old art-themed magazines, writes Andrew Losowsky.

Here's some of the highlights of what I saw.

There were some old favorites, including the continually strong Bidoun, Bad Day, 032c, Fukt, mono.kultur, Sup, and The Thing Quarterly. There was also the regularly strong showing of noteworthy contemporary LGBTQ publications including FAQNP, Girls Like Us, Original Plumbing and Working Class, and a photography-focused section, including Aperture, Blind Spot and FOAM (whose What’s Next issue featured other photography mags), as well as Fantom, now renamed OSMOS.

However, I'm always excited to see new publications, and here's one of my favorites:

The picture above is Maryna Tomaszewska, the creator of IT! The Worst Magazine Ever! (aka TO! Periodyk najgorszy). It's a biannual art magazine about Poland that changes format and language depending on its theme. Recent editions include “Time” (below, created as a daily calendar, with artists and authors' creations accompanying each date), “Gold” (in Polish and Russian, with the intention of being circulated in the towns around Siberian gold mines), and “Poland” (a faux guidebook, entirely in English, revealing the less seemly side of the country's present and history).

It's witty and ironic, entertaining and with a clear vision. In fact, it reminds me in tone of another magazine from an often overlooked country, Finland’s Kasino A4.

There were also some good spots in the shop at PSOne, including an enormous-formated new magazine Upon (above) from Berlin with a big-named creative director, the Chimurenga newspaper and Frame's latest issue featuring its cover lines in raised type.