Experience the 56th California International Antiquarian Book Fair: February 9-11

Pier 27, The Embarcadero, SF CA 94111

The 56^th California International Antiquarian Book Fair is about to launch Friday, February 9^th at Pier 27 in San Francisco at the Embarcadero (94111). This is a new venue for the ABAA and the facilities will provide some sparkle.

This year’s events begin Friday, February 9, 2024 at 5:00pm, continues on Saturday, February 10 from noon to 7:00 pm, wrapping up Sunday, February 11, running from noon to 5:00pm. It’s an opportunity to buy some interesting material from some interesting people. This fair is sponsored by the ABAA, the leading American rare book dealers’ association.

This year’s event is providing opportunities to meet with all 122 participating dealers that are bringing selected material from their stock. Simply observing this material provides insight as to how professionals judge material by simply reading their descriptions while observing the offered copies. In person is the best way to understand condition. And if something appeals to you, almost everything is priced!

Here is a link to this year’s exhibitors - https://www.abaa.org/cabookfair/cabf-sf24-by-alpha

While the principal draw to the show are the dealers and their stock, there is a section they call: Cultural Row. There associations and organizations that support book collecting have displays:

C1 American Bookbinders Museum

C2 The Book Club of California

C3 Letterform Archive

C4 San Francisco Center for the Book

C5 Hand Bookbinders of Northern California

C6 Ephemera Society of America

As well there is a steady flow of guest speakers on Saturday to stimulate interest to the field:

1:00pm

Liberation Through Duplication: Press Power of the Long 1960s

By Lincoln Cushing, Independent archivist and historian, Docs Populi, Instructor, University of California, Berkeley

This presentation explores a marginalized segment of the printed ephemera world during the 1960s and 1970s - politically motivated propaganda. Activists who’d never before even touched a press or a squeegee learned how to print as a means to an end. Much of this material was rough around the edges but full of spirit and style.

Lincoln Cushing has at various times been a printer, artist, archivist, author, and academic librarian at the University of California. He is committed to documenting, cataloging, and disseminating oppositional political culture of the late 20th century. His books include Revolucion! Cuban Poster Art (2003), Visions of Peace & Justice: 30 Years of Political Posters from the Archives of Inkworks Press (2007) and Agitate! Educate! Organize! - American Labor Posters (2009). He curated the 2012 exhibition All Of Us Or None — Poster Art of the San Francisco Bay Area at the Oakland Museum of California and is the author of its catalog.

2:30pm

Typographic Jazz, The Monoprints of Jack Stauffacher

By Rob Saunders, Executive Director and Curator, Letterform Archive

Based on the exhibit currently at the Letterform Archive, this talk focuses on the most improvisational work of the San Francisco master printer Jack Stauffacher, using wood type as form without semantic meaning. "Rob Saunders, Executive Director and Curator, (he/him), is a designer, teacher, publisher, and management consultant, who has collected graphic design and letterforms for over 40 years. Rob began his career teaching at The School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston and Tufts University, while serving freelance clients and agencies, before founding a book publishing enterprise that included Alphabet Press (graphic design), Picture Book Studio (children’s books), and Rabbit Ears Books (book/audio packages), which was eventually acquired by Simon & Schuster. Prior to founding Letterform Archive he served as a creative and marketing consultant with clients in the hospitality, technology, and financial industries.

Letterform Archive is a nonprofit center for inspiration, education, publishing, and community. Its mission is to share the joy of letters with design-curious people. It was founded as a place to share his private collection with the public. The Archive opened to visitors in February 2015 and now offers hands-on access to a curated collection of over 100,000 items related to lettering, typography, calligraphy, and graphic design, spanning thousands of years of history. The Archive is located on Ramaytush Ohlone land in the Dogpatch neighborhood of San Francisco."

4:00pm

Copier Art as a Catalyst for Community Building in the Bay Area

By Maymanah Farhat, Writer, Curator, Lecturer at Fresno State University

Artists began using copy technology in the Bay Area as early as the 1960s, yet it wasn’t until the late 1970s that the arrival of Xerox machines at places like the San Francisco Art Institute and Galeria de la Raza in the San Francisco’s Mission District that copier art began to provide creative outlets for education, community building, and collaboration. This presentation will look at copier art that was created at these two hubs, focusing on how the availability of Xerox machines in San Francisco allowed local artistic communities to expand individual and collective creative practices. Artists whose works will be highlighted include Rene Yanez, Yolanda Lopez, and Enrique Chagoya in addition to Jay DeFeo, Bruce Conner, and Fred Martin.

Maymanah Farhat is an arts writer, an award-winning curator, and a university lecturer. Her writing and scholarship focus on overlooked artists and forgotten art scenes. She is a frequent contributor to the Brooklyn Rail's Art Book section and teaches at Fresno State University. Farhat is the curator of A Radical Alteration: Women's Studio Workshop as a Sustainable Model for Art Making, which will be on view at the San Francisco Center for the Book January 20 - March 31, 2024.

Kirsten Silva Gruesz has authored dozens of essays on early US Latinx print culture in Spanish and English. Her most recent book, Cotton Mather’s Spanish Lessons: A Story of Language, Race, and Belonging in the Early Americas (Harvard, 2022), has won multiple prizes including the Albert J. Beveridge Award from the American Historical Association and the annual Best Book in the History of the Book Award from SHARP. She is an elected member of the American Antiquarian Society.

5:30pm

Latinos and Spanish-Language Printing in Nineteenth-Century California

By Kirsten Silva Gruesz, Professor of Literature, University of California-Santa Cruz

Californiana is often highly sought after, and early California imprints are even rarer due to the fires that destroyed entire collections following the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Although the first press in the state served its Mexican population, histories of US Latino print culture rarely connect the East Coast and the West. Starting with the arrival of the Zamorano press to Monterey in 1826, this talk highlights examples of Spanish and bilingual California printing through the 1920s.

Kirsten Silva Gruesz has authored dozens of essays on early US Latinx print culture in Spanish and English. Her most recent book, Cotton Mather’s Spanish Lessons: A Story of Language, Race, and Belonging in the Early Americas (Harvard, 2022), has won multiple prizes including the Albert J. Beveridge Award from the American Historical Association and the annual Best Book in the History of the Book Award from SHARP. She is an elected member of the American Antiquarian Society.