This exhibition presents a survey of the fifth annual NY Art Book Fair organized by Printed Matter, Inc. and hosted by MoMA PS1.
The 2010 iteration of the fair occured from November 5-7 and filled the entire building with over 200 international presses, booksellers, antiquarian dealers, artists and publishers from 20 countries. This report as exhibition showcases a selection of materials from various book fair participants, including: posters, prints, multiples, T-shirts, and installations.
Bring a Book to Trade with IFS, Ltd. at MoMA PS1's NY Art Book Fair Report.
IFS, Ltd. has extended its book-trading period through to November 29, 2010 at its New York branch in the first-floor Drawing Gallery of MoMA PS1. IFS, Ltd. invites you to bring a book to exchange with one of our on-site representatives, thus formalizing your status as a Shareholder in The Book Trust.
The Trust, a site-specific publication and installation, was originally presented at the New York Art Book Fair, November 5-7, 2010. Over the course of that weekend, Investment Futures Strategy, Ltd., comprised of five graduate students from the Dept. of Graphic Design at the Yale School of Art, offered an original publication for trade in a series of barters executed by its authors.
The Book Trust Prospectus addresses matters of micro-economy and distribution, as well as prescribed versus perceived value. The project suggests a currency specific to the setting of the Book Fair: a context in which a distinct set of commodities is exchanged by like-minded vendors in a finite space and time. It is only in this setting that a book could be posited as capital-a literal stand-in for the money that commonly exchanges hands at the Fair. Perceived worth is thus dictated by a trader's subjective notion of the values they assign each book. The Book Trust Prospectus is the story of its own making and financing as well as an evaluation of the context in which it was made and financed.
Over the three days of the Fair, the book varied in value as each negotiation determined its worth in the marketplace. The traded commodities now comprise The Book Trust-a value-appreciating book bank. By trading with IFS, Ltd., participants acquired a single share of the bank, the Prospectus acting as a document of that transaction. In framing the project in a format similar to that of a stock exchange, IFS, Ltd. hopes that the Trust emphasizes the tenuous, abstract value of the book: as a designed object, as a medium for content, as a traded commodity, and as a symbol of participation in the project itself.
IFS, Ltd. is Benjamin Critton, Harry Gassel, Brendan Griffiths, Zak Klauck, and Mylinh Nguyen.
Online at www.ifs-l.biz
