Presse Books Fair

Presse Books Fair was a free one-day festival at FormaHQ bringing together over 30 independent publishers and artists, workshops, a live zine assemblage, talks, performances, readings and more. One day to celebrate independent publishing in all its configurations, make new connections and give a platform to new practitioners in art publishing.

The full programme included:

11am
STRIKE: Live zine assembly

12 - 2pm
Cyanotypes in the Garden: workshop with artist Tom Pope

2.30 - 3pm
Everything Happens So Much: Oisín Roberts (Think Big, Read Community Library), Wes Knowler and D Mortimer talk about libraries

3.30 - 4.30pm
Pulped Pages: book-making with artist Lucie MacGregor hosted by Drawing Room

4 - 4.30pm
Content Prole, AQNB Anthology: conversation between Steph Kretowicz & Jared Davis

5 - 5.30pm
Gilding the Rim: performative reading by co-operative queer press Canal

6 - 6.30pm
A Perfect Sentence: excerpts read by Oliver Frank Chanarin from his new book

STRIKE
A new low-fi zine published by Forma, which will be pasted onto the brutalist orange concrete walls of Peveril Gardens, with contributions from 58 international artists including: Clémentine Bedos, Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley, Adham Faramawy, Flatness, Marco Fusinato, Holly Graham, Julianknxx, Anne Imhof, Lawrence Lek, Eleni Papazoglou, Sin Wai Kin, Kialy Tihngang & more.

Order your copy here.

With publishing from:
Anamot Press, Art Monthly, AQNB, Banner Repeater, Belmacz, Bricks from the Kiln, Book Works, Bronze Age, Capricious Publishing, Canal, Chan Magazine, Cool Moist Books, Decadence Comics, Dominic Murray, Drawing Room, Electric Frog Press, Fieldnotes, Flatness, Folium, Forma, Good Press, InOtherWords, Lolli Editions, Loose Joints, Marzipan, Matt's Gallery, Monitor Books, Montez Press, The Mosaic Rooms, Nieves, Onomatopee, Pagemasters, Pilot Press, Prototype Publishing, Rat Zine, Shanzhai Lyric, South London Gallery Bookshop, Southwark Park Galleries, Sticky Fingers Publishing, Strange Attractor Press, Supporting Material, Think Big Read Library, TLTRPreß, Tom Pope, Worms Magazine.

Music selected by
Laila Majid
Rene Matić
Abbas Zahedi

Instead of a commission or stall fee, tables were offered for free to invite both emerging and established practitioners in art publishing. Publishers who were unable to join in person were invited to send books to be sold at the Forma stall, with 40% of proceeds going towards the programming.

When booking your ticket, please consider making a donation to support the programming and overall fair costs.

Access information
The fair will be situated on the ground floor with a wheelchair accessible toilet. Peveril Gardens is located on the rooftop with a lift available on request.