Over the past several years, a phenomenon has quietly taken hold in the art world, flying in the face of its consolidation and more businesslike bearing: Art book fairs have sprung up around the world, many of them as mobbed as rock concerts, packed with young and old — but mostly young — publishers and book lovers who come together for the increasingly rare chance to exchange well-made art objects (in book form) for just a few dollars.

One force behind the rise of these fairs was Shannon Michael Cane, an exuberant, heavily tattooed Australian expatriate and autodidact book aficionado who in 2013 took over the Printed Matter book fair in New York, the granddaddy of such gatherings. He proceeded to transform it into a radically inclusive affair, attended by venerable rare-book dealers alongside obscure zine makers so scrappy that they could barely afford the plane fare to participate.

“He was an open, generous enthusiast for artists and the printed material they produced, and he believed passionately that the world of books was large enough to have everyone in the house,” said Philip Aarons, the board chair of Printed Matter, the nonprofit Chelsea bookstore, distributor and publisher. “He made it his, with his own curatorial style, and I think it’s one of the reasons it took off.”

Mr. Cane died on Nov. 9 at 43 at his home in Brooklyn. The cause was suicide, according to family members in Australia.