Book fair brings to light a different kind of art

NORTHAMPTON — It’s common knowledge that the Valley is home to many an artist. But according to Mark Brumberg of Boomerang Booksellers in Northampton, there’s one subgroup of artists who aren’t as obvious to most people: book artists, the kind who make fine art and limited edition books.



“There are many people who work in the Valley in their studios and workshops unbeknownst to the general public,” Brumberg said. “Traditional artists who work in workshops have open studios this time of year. But book artists don’t tend to do that.”



That’s why he joined forces with Duane Stevens, owner of Wiggins Fine Books in Shelburne Falls, and others in the Valley’s bookselling and book arts community to produce the first Northampton Book and Book Arts Fair. The event took place Friday and Saturday, and filled the Smith College Campus Center with vendors and artists offering used and antiquarian books, artist books, ephemera, letterpress printing, book binding and papermaking.



Though that list may seem like it all goes together, Brumberg said that in the fine art book world, that’s not necessarily true. “It’s unusual to have us all operating under one umbrella. That was the goal of this fair — to bring the two camps of bookselling and book arts together.”



“The genesis for the idea was a trip that my wife and I made to the Brooklyn Holiday Book Fair,” said Stevens. “Our idea was to combine book arts with antiquarian books.”



It was a natural combo in the Valley, he said, because Northampton is a “hotbed for the book arts. We’ve had the Gehenna Press. The great (artist and illustrator) Leonard Baskin was here. A lot of the people that have been trained in the book arts were trained by Leonard Baskin or the Gehenna Press.”



That led to a turnout Stevens dubbed “phenomenal” for the fair’s opening events.



That turnout helped artists like Amy Borezo, of Shelter Bookworks in Orange, get their work seen. “There’s a great community of makers of these things,” said Borezo. “It’s a great opportunity for us to get together and see the work that we’ve been slaving away on in our studios and share with the public who may or may not know what we do.”



The fair kicked off Friday night with a keynote address by book historian Richard Minsky, and also included a book signing by Valley engraver Barry Moser and a letter carving demonstration by Webster’s Jesse Marsolais.



On Saturday, the sun-drenched space was filled with the sorts of books that filled shelves in the libraries of old manor houses — leatherbound volumes inked in gold — but also plenty of more modern books, including handmade art books and dust-jacketed first editions.



The last is the sort of thing that New Haven, Connecticut resident Christopher Anagnostakis, a retired math professor who collects books, doesn’t much care for. “Modern first editions in dust jackets that sell for tens of thousand — they’re objects,” Anagnostakis said. “You wouldn’t read such books, so they sit there in a glass case.”



He prefers books he can read like any other. Though he said that old illustrated books can exhibit “outrageous” price differences, even for the same book, “Sometimes you can get an old illustrated book for less than a new one.”



Collectors like Anagnostakis have a fair number of book fests where they can score old volumes. But for book artists, the opportunities are fewer, according to Abigail Rorer, of Lone Oak Press in Petersham. She chose to come to Northampton, she said, because it’s a rare opportunity so close to home. “We’re always trying to get more fine press book fairs established. I go to Oxford England, Berkeley, California, New York City and Delaware,” said Rorer, “and that’s about all there are.”



The Northampton Book Fair, she said, seems a lot like those at the other locales. Which is, she added, a good sign that it will continue.





