Over the course of four days, Printed Matter’s LA Art Book Fair offers dozens of opportunities for engagement, with conversations, workshops, performances, and other artist-led programs.
Programs also include an Opening Night celebration, the Reading Room, exhibitor awards, workshops, activations across ArtCenter’s many departments and studios, and curated Project Spaces.
This long-running program provides space for artists, writers, designers, and publishers to highlight new releases at LAABF and fosters dialogue around important themes in artists’ book publishing. LAABF 2026 participants include Alejandro Cartagena, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, and Ron Finley, among many others. The LAABF 2026 Classroom is organized in collaboration with David Senior, Director of Library at SFMOMA.
The Stage
The courtyard of the Fair will feature a lineup of local DJs, musicians, and performances organized in collaboration with Orange Radio & Homebody, whose DIY radio station and community space in Alhambra captures the essence of greater Los Angeles through both audio and printed archives.
The Shannon Michael Cane Award
This award is granted to emerging artists (artists, artists’ book publishers, or collectives in the early stages of their careers) who would be first-time exhibitors in a Printed Matter Art Book Fair. Each recipient is granted a complimentary table and an unrestricted stipend. Exhibitor applications were reviewed by a panel comprised of the founders of the Shannon Michael Cane Memorial Fund and Printed Matter staff. This year’s winners are 林家夯 Lin Jaihang (Taipei), Lost and Found Press (Berlin), Strangeways Magazine (California), and UNDERTOW (Colorado).
Volume Grant
This funding opportunity is for artists and publishers who identify as Black, Indigenous, or People of Color. Recipients are granted a complimentary table at the Fair and an unrestricted stipend. This year’s winners are A.R.D.O. (California), Gueari Galeri (Indonesia), Pide un deseo (Peru), and Shadowbanned Magazine (New York). This year’s LAABF Volume Grant jury included Camm Harrison, Ibi Ibrahim, and Saida Largaespada.
Support for the LAABF 2026 Volume Grant is generously provided by the LAABF Committee.
Workshops
Throughout the Fair weekend, ArtCenter’s South Campus will open their many departments to offer programming that engages with the artists’ book format. Activities will include risograph workshops with Riso Studio Arts; tours and printmaking demonstrations in Archetype Press, California’s largest letterpress printing facility; student exhibitions the graduate galleries and in the Hoffmitz Milken Center for Typography (HMCT); and more.
Opening Night ticket holders receive a limited-edition deck of cards created by LA-based artist Amia Yokoyama. Inspired by their associations with nature and magic, Yokoyama hand-built a full set of 52 cards—plus two jokers—out of ceramic and glaze. Each card features a unique human, animal, plant, or otherworldly image alongside a corresponding number and suit. The original ceramics will be on view at the Fair.
Project Spaces
These special publication-focused projects are presented by select Fair exhibitors, hosted by Printed Matter. This year’s projects include an archival exhibition of newspapers by Chicano in Print, a curated selection of Ed Ruscha's expansive Sunset Strip project by The Getty Research Institute, a courtyard installation of Vince Skelly’s bookstools from Marta, artifacts of pre-Y2K Asian girlhood from the 90’s band Emily’s Sassy Lime (E.S.L.) organized by Ooga Booga, an illuminated installation of publications for cinefiles by Paint It Black and Three Star Books, risograph history and printing workshops by RISO Studio Arts, and a site-specific billboard project that evolves over the course of the fair by Werkplaats Typografie.
¡Afuera! Publishing Queer Liberation—From the Collection of Archivos Desviados
¡Afuera! traces the underrecognized network of influences and connections between three activist coalitions of the 1970s: the Gay Liberation Front of New York and the Third World Gay Revolution, two groups that emerged in post-Stonewall New York, and the Frente de Liberación Homosexual of Argentina, Latin America’s first political action group for gays and lesbians. Featuring rare magazines, newsletters, posters, flyers, mockups, and original documents, this survey—previously exhibited at Printed Matter in 2025—marks the first LA presentation of many of these works. Materials are drawn from Archivos Desviados, an ongoing, independent archive project now based in New York and founded by Argentinian-born archivist Juan Queiroz. This exhibition is by Printed Matter.
Reading Room
This Reading Room returns this year with a focus on the politics of sound, drawing inspiration from publishers who use the print medium to explore the relationship between sound, geography, and ecology. The installation will feature newly commissioned works by a select group of exhibitors, as well as a series of videos and listening stations. Other Fair exhibitors will contribute titles related to the theme for a collective reference library hosted in the space. In contrast to the rapid speed at which visitors move through the Fair, this program offers an alternative space to engage in close reading, listening, critique, and reflection. This year’s Reading Room participants include Aventures LTD., Cynthia Magazine, F.A.G. Archive, groupsports, Khabar Keslan Magazine, Living Earth, and Metabolic Studio, among others.