The Seattle Art Book Fair includes talks, activities, and installations from members of our extended arts community.

All programs are free and open to the public! 

TALKS & ETC

All talks take place in the first floor Classroom
of Washington Hall unless otherwise noted.

FRIDAY, MAY 9
4:00 – 6:00 pm
Sarah Maker, Editions Studio: Summoning the Maker Spirit: Developing Rituals to Consecrate Your Creative Space and Time (Zine Workshop @ Seattle Public Library (Central Library), Downtown) →


SATURDAY, MAY 10
12:00 PM
Zach Clark, National Monument Press: Mimeograafide Trükkimine TYPAS →

1:15 pm 
Luis David Morán, Ediciones Concordia Mx.: Archive of Waste →

2:30 pm 
Daniel R. Smith and Cecelia "Mika" Westman: Page Turner Fellowship: Book Launch →

3:45 pm
Mathew Timmons (Insert Press) and Friends: Across Pages and Practices: Publishing Between Art and Literature →

SUNDAY, MAY 11
11:00 am
Screening & Talk: Documenting Small Press Practice + Community→

12:00 pm
Puget Sound Book Artists: Redefining the Book: A Conversation with Book Artists →

1:15 pm
Luba Uzik: Poetry as Witness: A Creative Reading & Zine Workshop →

2:30 pm
Heather Corcoran :
Being the narrator: Visual essays that get personal →

2:30 pm
Taha Ebrahimi: Guided Street Tree Walk of Cherry Hill (Registration required; meets outside) →

3:45 pm
Alex Belardo Kostiw and Friends: Printing for the Public: Our Readers and How We Reach Them →

INSTALLATION

SAT–SUN
Reading Chairs →

ACTIVITIES

Activities & installations take place on the third floor of Washington Hall unless otherwise noted.

SATURDAY, MAY 10
11:00 – 5:00 pm
You As An Animal (Michelle Lassaline) →

12:00 – 4:00 pm
Press Power (letterpress printing with Partners in Print) →

SUNDAY, MAY 11
12:00–5:00 pm
Bring It! Screen It!
(screen printing with The Vera Project) →

ONGOING
The following activities are available throughout the weekend!

Rainy Day Book Exchange →

Book Fort →

SATTELITE PROGRAMS

SELF HELP by Brandon Vosika (@ The Factory) →

SATURDAY, MAY 10
SABF after party & exhibition opening for “Love Rules the World” (@ Common Objects) →

Summoning the Maker Spirit: Developing Rituals to Consecrate Your Creative Space and Time (Zine Workshop)
Sarah Maker, Editions Studio

Note: This is an offsite program held at Seattle Public Library!

Location: Central Library, Level 7 Zine Room
Registration is not required
 
FRIDAY, MAY 9
4:00 – 6:00 PM
Thank you to our partner Seattle Public Library

In this workshop, you'll create a handmade zine filled with your own creative rituals and practices. We'll explore gentle ways to transform your creative space, honor your tools, befriend your unique creative spirit, and protect your making time. Perfect for both beginners and experienced creators, this workshop offers a playful, pressure-free approach to establishing meaningful creative practices. No artistic experience needed—just bring your curiosity! All materials provided. Take home a completed zine with personalized rituals that help you show up for your creative practice with more ease, joy, and consistency. Come discover the small, magical practices that can make a big difference in your creative life.

This workshop creates a supportive environment where everyone's creative process is honored. No comparisons, no "right way." Just thoughtful exploration of what works for you.

About the artist: “My early explorations in book art were about documenting my daughter’s life and linguistic development, but I didn’t consider myself an artist until years later. Now the stories I’m compelled to tell are about light and dark, division and inclusion, self and other, and alternative ways of seeing. I love distilling books to their elemental forms and augmenting my stories with structure, scale, materials, and interaction. My most fundamental guiding principle is that everyone has a story to tell, and I live that every day running Editions, Seattle's center for book arts.” — Sarah Maker 

Mimeograafide Trükkimine TYPAS
Zach Clark, National Monument Press

SATURDAY, MAY 10
12:00 pm

While Risograph printing has exploded to a ubiquitous medium at most art book fairs or zine fests, it is only the most contemporary of a lineage of stencil-based duplication methods, the most widespread being the mimeograph. Through the mid to late 20th century, mimeographs allowed for an explosion in duplicated ephemera, from office communication to underground publication. However, due to their scarcity today, Zach Clark of National Monument Press had never even seen one in person before traveling 5000 miles for the opportunity to work with one in at TYPA Print Centre in Tartu Estonia. Now, he won’t stop talking about it. 

Zach Clark is an Oakland, CA based artist, educator, and publisher. He publishes as National Monument Press, a publishing project focused on supporting uniquely American stories through small edition printed matter and curatorial projects, completed largely through collaboration with other artists. He is one half of Chute Studio.

Archive of Waste
Luis David Morán, Ediciones Concordia Mx.

SATURDAY, MAY 10
1:15 pm

Ediciones Concordia Mx is a screen printed art book editions project. At the workshop we accumulate a wide variety of printed matter from multiple artists. All this material contains failed attempts, experiments and unexpected results. For us, the accumulation and waste archive is the beginning of the process for creating something new.

Ediciones Concordia Mx is an independent screen printed art book press run by Mexican artists LD Morán and Nando Murio. We focus on the unlimited possibilities of image creation, material exploration, and handmade books. Located in Querétaro, México.

Page Turner Fellowship: Book Launch
Daniel R. Smith and Cecelia “Mika” Westman

SATURDAY, MAY 10
2:30 pm

Artists Daniel R. Smith and Cecelia “Mika” Westman present and discuss their new book projects developed as part of the inaugural Page Turner Fellowship program. Launched by SABF in late 2024, the Page Turner Fellowship provides mentorship and resources for the creation of a first publication by  artists and designers who are new to making art books. Learn more about the program here.

Daniel R. Smith is a Native Seattle artist, graphic designer, and design curator. His art spans multiple mediums, including collage, sculpture, photography, and installation, including an on-going land installation, the “nanoforest”, which connects his upbringing on the Tulalip Indian Reservation to life in his rapidly gentrifying Seattle neighborhood, the Central District.
Cecelia "Mika" Westman has a background in art rooted in her deep love of histories and narratives. Westman is an Afro-Indigenous creative, born and raised in her Indigenous Homelands of Lingit Aaní (now known as SE Alaska) with strong influences from her time in Urban Landscapes like Detroit among her father’s family.

Across Pages and Practices: Publishing Between Art and Literature Moderated by Mathew Timmons (Insert Press) with Vivian Sming (Sming Sming Books), Matthew Austin (For the Birds Trapped in Airports), and Gary Robbins (Container Corps)

SATURDAY, MAY 10
3:45 pm

This panel brings together interdisciplinary publishers, artists, and writers to discuss the fluid space between the contemporary art and literary worlds. Panelists will explore how publishing operates across these overlapping spheres—through artist books, poetry, critical writing, and exhibitions—while navigating the blurred lines between disciplines, roles, and audiences. From artist-run presses to conceptual writing and gallery-based publishing, the conversation will trace the challenges and opportunities in working across distinct but parallel creative metiers. 

Mathew Timmons is a writer, editor, and co-founder of Insert Press, a Los Angeles-based publisher focused on experimental literature and artist books. He also runs General Projects, an artist-run gallery that generates publications through exhibitions, performances, and collaborative programming.

Documenting Small Press Practice + Community: Screening & Discussion Robert Baxter and Whitney Bashaw

SUNDAY, MAY 11
11:00 – 11:45 am

We (Whitney Bashaw + Robert Baxter) are working on a documentary film about the small press community. We’re starting with the Seattle risograph scene and plan to let the journey unravel from there, moving further afield and into other spaces as the project develops. At this stage we want to host a community discussion to present our ideas, talk about what people in the room are interested in, and screen the mini doc (The Risograph and the Technician, 4 min) that kicked off this idea.

Whitney Bashaw is a writer and filmmaker living on the ancestral, unceded lands of the Duwamish People. She is the co-editor of Ancient Tech News, a risograph arts & letters newspaper. Robert Baxter makes small books. He practices as a public academic, collaborative publisher, arts organizer, and itinerant press laborer/mechanic.

Redefining the Book: A Conversation with Book Artists Facilitated by Jane Carlin with Carletta Carrington Wilson, Esther Ervin, Jodee Fenton, and Bonnie Thompson Norman

SUNDAY, MAY 11
12:00 pm

In this interactive panel discussion, you will have the opportunity to hear from prominent Seattle book artists who are pushing the boundaries of contemporary book design through their artistry and creativity. Whether working with letterpress, fine binding, textiles as well as historical and contemporary text, these 4 artists each approach the art of the book in unique and inspiring ways to engage the viewer/reader to reflect and learn and be inspired. They will be sharing examples of recent work.

Jane Carlin serves on the Board of the Book Club of Washington and Puget Sound Book Artists and has curated a number of artists' book exhibitions. Jodee Fenton runs Aubergine Atelier dedicated to creating art in book form—including writing, fine printing, artwork and design bookbinding. Esther Ervin is a visual artist whose social commentaries are expressed in sculpture, 2D works and jewelry. Following her Black and Indigenous People’s Residency at Seattle Print Arts, she has become deeply committed to print and book arts. Bonnie Thompson Norman is a letterpress printer and book artist and has been proprietor of The Windowpane Press for over forty years where she produces work relevant to contemporary issues as well as personal reflections. Carletta Carrington Wilson's literary and visual works merge as artists' books, zines, installations and collages that mirror the melding of language and form.

Poetry as Witness: A Creative Reading & Zine Workshop
Luba Uzik

SUNDAY, MAY 11
1:15 pm

This workshop explores how poetry holds memory and resilience. We’ll read Ukrainian poems in translation and then create personal zines using magazine cutouts, handwriting, and drawing. This session invites participants to respond to literature through handmade visual storytelling—offering a space for reflection, creativity, and cultural exchange.

Liubov (Luba) Uzik is a designer, community organizer, and founder of the Lovage Book Club—the first Ukrainian book club on Seattle’s Eastside. Since 2023, she has fostered appreciation for Ukrainian literature through monthly events, author talks, and book discussions that connect Ukrainian-American communities and amplify diverse voices.

Being the narrator: Visual essays that get personal
Heather Corcoran

SUNDAY, MAY 11
2:30 pm

This presentation will explore the current state of visual essays, which is both rich and complex. It will examine three ideas—historical and contemporary perceptions of what an essay is, the particular opportunity of the personal essay for contemporary readers and writers, and how what we see on the page can influence our experience of reading. In an effort to sort through the variability of visual essays, this discussion will attempt to identify some organizing principles. Examples will be drawn from professional designers and writers, as well as students. Audience participation is welcome. 

Heather Corcoran is a graphic designer and a writer whose work explores data, place, and belonging. She makes maps and books with text, numerical data, and image. Her essays examine isolation and connection in the visual landscape. She teaches design at Washington University in St. Louis.

Guided Street Tree Walk of Cherry Hill
Taha Ebrahimi

SUNDAY, MAY 11
2:30 – 4:00 pm


Note: This guided walking tour takes place outdoors. Limited to 20 participants. Registration required. 

Reserve tickets (Note: registration opens April 22 at 8 pm PST) →

Seattle has one of the most diverse collections of street trees in the country (double the East Coast and triple the Midwest!). Join the author of Street Trees of Seattle on a guided walk of the neighborhood exploring both its history and its street trees. We will travel through the southern part of Cherry Hill and past what remains of the old Black Panther headquarters, stopping at notable street trees to learn more about them. 

Taha Ebrahimi is the author and illustrator of "Street Trees of Seattle" (Sasquatch Books: 2024), an unconventional walking guide based on city data going back to 1950 and covering approximately 170,000 street trees. She serves as a member of the council for Historic Seattle as well as the board for the Cal Anderson Park Alliance. Her writing has appeared in Creative Nonfiction, Crosscut, The Seattle Times, and several anthologies.

Printing for the Public: Our Readers and How We Reach Them Alex Belardo Kostiw with Leland Vaughan (Outlet PDX), Virgil Alonso (Photoverge), Ivy Zheyu Chen (Upon Studio), and Jean Y. Kim (Extra Credit)

SUNDAY, MAY 11
3:45 pm

This discussion explores the reader's multifaceted role in artist publishing. As artists with diverse practices, panelists will share the varied ways that they consider the reader in their work. We will talk about the readers we publish for, how we connect with them, and how they shape our practices and projects. In turn, how do we see our practices forming “publics”—contributing to communities or bodies of knowledge? In what spaces and ways do we situate our work? What does access(ibility) mean to us?

Alex Belardo Kostiw’s work deals in poetic elements, visual structures of comics, and conceptually driven forms to invite interactive reading. Their practice explores unknown parts and possibilities in the everyday, in personal connections, and in ourselves. They teach visual communication design at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Take a Seat: Reading Chairs for SABF In collaboration with ARCADE NW

ALL WEEKEND
Stage + Around Washington Hall

The way we read has changed; should the furniture we use for reading change too? Seattle Art Book Fair in collaboration with ARCADE NW put out a call for new reading chairs resulting in an exhibition of 12 chairs that reflect the imagination and creativity of local architects, designers, and artists. These chairs will be exhibited on the second floor stage as well as around Washington Hall throughout the weekend.

Featuring work by Janelle Abbott (JRAT); Colleen Louise Barry; Shiloh Davies; Lilia Deering, Cossette Fricke; Rosemarie Grégoire & Xio Alvarez; Brian Havener; Mel Kagerer; Jack MacLeod and Peyton Todd; Paige Madden; Scott Shook; Wishbone Industrial Arts/Jackson Bennett; and University of Washington’s College of Built Environments and School of Art + Art History + Design.

ARCADE is a 501(c)(3) non-profit community publishing house established in 1981 whose mission is to host an inclusive and insightful dialogue on the designed environment. ARCADE produces print and digital publications, as well as community programming. ARCADE’s vision is to expand the idea that design at every scale of human endeavor impacts our quality of life.

You As An Animal Michelle Lassaline

SATURDAY, MAY 11
11:00 - 5:00 pm

Artist Michelle Lassaline paints portraits of people as any animal they choose. With watercolor and ink on paper, Michelle creates these personal, whimsical works of art in just a few minutes. Lassaline started the project in 2014 and has since performed for the City of Seattle, Artist Trust, 4Culture, the Tacoma Art Museum, the Northwest Public Art Conference, Pike Place Market, Fremont Market, Vashon Strawberry Festival, and numerous weddings, celebrations, and gatherings of all kinds.

Michelle Lassaline received an MFA in Interdisciplinary Art from the Maine College of Art & Design in 2022. In addition to watercolor, Lassaline works in paper mache and textiles. www.youasananimal.com

Press Power
Letterpress printing with Partners in Print 

SATURDAY, MAY 10
12:00 – 4:00 pm

Drop in anytime Saturday afternoon for free, family-friendly letterpress poster printing. Partners in Print is bringing their presses, paper, and ink to the Seattle Art Book Fair—what message will you print and share with your community?
PiP brings people together by using old printing presses to amplify new voices, share knowledge, and spark creativity. Learn more at partnersinprint.org and on Instagram: @pipletterpress.

Bring It! Screen It!
The Vera Project

SUNDAY, MAY 11
12:00-4:00 pm

Bring It! Screen It! is a live on-site screen printing demonstration organized by The Vera Project Screen Printing Studio that allows attendees the opportunity to up-cycle their used cotton t-shirts and totes while learning the screen printing process with hands-on interactivity.

The Vera Project is an all-ages nonprofit space dedicated to fostering personal and community transformation through collaborative, youth-driven engagement in music and art. A music venue, screen print shop, recording studio, art gallery, and safe space for radical self-expression, VERA is a home to Seattle’s creative community. Learn more at theveraproject.org.

Rainy Day Book Exchange
Seattle Art Book Fair

Bring a book you want to pass along (handmade book arts, zines, art/design books, publications — all types are welcome), and take a new book home with you. The book exchange is open to anyone who wants to participate. Special thanks to this year’s book donations from Marquand Books. Ongoing throughout the weekend.

Book Fort!
Seattle Art Book Fair

An activity table for kids and kids at heart, with book making instructions and supplies. Follow one of the provided book construction methods, or invent your own!

SELF HELP
Brandon Vosika

Location: The Factory
1216 10th Ave, Seattle

THU, MAY 8
6:00 – 8:00 pm (opening)

SAT, MAY 10 and SUN, MAY 11
12:00 - 6:00pm

Self Help is a new collection of sculptural book paintings by Seattle artist Brandon Vosika. Humor and sentiment collide in this showcase of imagined novels and “how-to’s” you won’t find on any bestseller list. Carved out of discarded wood from a previous show at the gallery, each piece unveils a story of the artist’s innermost fears and desires.

“These are books I wish existed,” says Vosika. “So I made them real.”

SABF After Party & Exhibition Opening
Love Rules the World
NEOGLYPHIC MEDIA

Location: Common Objects, 
2601 1st Ave, Seattle

SAT, MAY 10
7:00 – midnight

Free and open to the public!

NEOGLYPHIC MEDIA presents Love Rules the World, an exhibition featuring original and printed work by Bridget Trout and Juliette Collet. Trout and Collet are prolific artists and cartoonists whose recent works use hyperbole, fantasy, and humor to explore female sexuality, objectification, and exploitation. This exhibition is organized on the occasion of the launch of new publications by Trout and Collet at the Seattle Art Book Fair and will include performances by the artists. The show also includes work by fellow Seattle Art Book Fair exhibitors including A.T. Pratt, Cold Cube Press, NEOGLYPHIC MEDIA, Yewon Kwon, and Zine Hug.

Love Rules the World is curated by Cullen Beckhorn (NEOGLYPHIC MEDIA) and hosted by Common Objects. Love Rules the World is a satellite program of the Seattle Art Book Fair.