The Vancouver Art Book Fair is a free, multi-day celebration of artists’ publishing featuring over one hundred local, national and international publishers, as well as a diverse line-up of programs, performances and artists’ projects.

Featured artists travel to Vancouver from across Canada and the globe, and produce everything from books, magazines, zines and printed ephemera to digital, performative or other experimental forms of publication.

Canada’s first art book fair, VABF is the longest-running international art book fair in the country and on the West Coast. In 2019 the event is anticipated to attract more than 5,000 visitors from across the Greater Vancouver Area and beyond.

Since its inception over a decade ago, VABF has operated as a volunteer-run, grassroots organization. It has paid CARFAC-rate fees to presenters since 2013, was able to pay its first modest honorariums to fair organizers in 2014 and managed to create a few independent contractor fees as of 2016—and the organization continues to grow and mature.

Here's what's happening at Emily Carr during VABF 2019:

• Friday, Oct. 18, 6–8pm: Fair Preview at ECU
  
• Friday, Oct. 18, 7–11pm: Fair Preview Reception at Libby Leshgold Gallery
• Saturday, Oct. 19 & Sunday, Oct. 20, 11am–7pm: The Vancouver Art Book Fair. It's free and open to the public, with multiple rooms of exhibitors, hourly talks in the Artists’ Book Room, artist projects and performances ongoing throughout the ECU campus, including:
  • Eloisa Aquino and Jenny Lin | B&D Press
    
  • Ho Tam | Hotam Press
  • Jordan Abel | NISHGA: An Artist Project
  • Jordan Abel | NISHGA: An Artist Talk
  • Lisa Robertson | Keynote: The Baudelaire Fractal
  • Dana Claxton | NWC Talks
  • Joana Joachim | From documents to exhibitions and back again: a look at Artexte’s research residency program
  • Third Rail Quarterly | Third Rail in Conversation
  • Patrik Andersson / Trapp Projects | Trapp Rocks, a Coat Hanger and Some Dinners
  • GenderFail | Failure as Practice
  • GenderFail | GenderFail Archive Project
    
  • Space to explore the intersection of publication and presentation from a digital perspective | The Media Gallery
  • Judy Radul | The Beginning The Middle and The End. Again.
  • James Hoff | Primary Information
  • Casey Wei | Agony Klub
  • Johanna Maierski | COLORAMA
  • Poor Quality | Bibliocache
  • The Foreshore | The Foreshore Listens
  • c magazine | What Can You Say About A Book?
  • Whess Harman | Together Apart Zine
    

Details on all the above programming can be found here!

And you can find out more about what's happening around Vancouver during VABF 2019 on this page.

If you're visiting from out of town, check out this helpful link to give you some tips on accommodation and directions on how to arrive directly at Emily Carr.

Want to volunteer for VABF 2019? Follow this link to find out more about unique opportunities to learn new skills, gain work experience, contribute to an emerging non-profit organization, make some new friends and earn free stuff.

The Emily Carr campus is fully accessible with gender neutral washrooms. We want to make sure everyone can enjoy VABF, so please contact info@vancouverartbookfair.com with accessibility inquires.

Emily Carr and VABF gratefully acknowledge that the book fair and university are on the unceded Territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.