PROGRAMME 2024 Volume 7 MTL
Interrogations
This year’s programme highlights artists, authors, and publishers that have used the medium of books to interrogate social issues and contexts.
What’s in a book? Art books transform our engagement with text, incorporating strong visual and material elements that foster a sensory experience. From showcasing facsimiles of works to books as works of art themselves, book arts reconfigure visual, material, and textual elements. Volume 7 MTL will explore how material and design elements have been interrogated by art publications to create new meaning. Through playful, innovative designs and materials, art books have the potential to question norms. In discussing critical issues, they can disrupt the status quo.
See a gallery of photos from the event here!
WEDNESDAY, October 2
3:00 PM – 4:00 PM: Caroline Sury on Instagram Live @volumemtl
Launch of Volume 7 MTL – Instagram Live, @volumemtl
Featuring Caroline Sury, presenting recent publications and archives of Le Dernier Cri (Marseille).
5:30 PM – Arprim: Presentation and Launch of the Publication “Une conversation” by Paul Kawczak with Steve Giasson
Arprim, 372 Saint-Catherine St W #426
Arprim is delighted to host the presentation of Une conversation, a work by Paul Kawczak with Cindy Dumais and Steve Giasson.
To mark the first volume of Paul Kawczak’s “writing without writing of oneself without oneself” project, L’autre Histoire du Ski – artist Steve Giasson, who worked with Cindy Dumais on this first opus, will talk about his experience. For more information about the project, visit L’Autre Histoire du Ski
6:00 PM – Volume 7 MTL @ Zine Tonique, Radio CIBL
Live presentation of the Volume 7 MTL program by Hélène Bughin and guests.
THURSDAY, October 3
Concordia University Fourth Space, Maisonneuve (Webster Library Building)
1:00 PM – 1:30 PM: Live podcast recording at Concordia University with editor Michael Parke-Tayor and Saelan Twerdy on the writing collected in the recent Concordia University Press book, Some Magnetic Force.
Watch the full youtube video of the event here!
Artist and educator Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald (1890–1956) was the only member of the Group of Seven, the iconic collective of Canadian landscape painters, who was based in Western Canada. Michael Parke-Taylor has uncovered and chronologically organized FitzGerald’s letters, diary, lectures, and reports to show how FitzGerald understood the development of his practice, communicated the philosophy of art to his art students, confronted challenges in his career, and presented his spiritual aspirations, views about the natural world, and private desires. These writings also elucidate the material and reputational realities of artistic production in places beyond the period’s dominant Canadian art centers of Toronto, Montreal, and Ottawa.
2:00 PM – 3:00 PM: Who do we publish for, the how, when, and the why?
Watch the full youtube video of the event here!
Join invited art publishers for an in-depth view of a recent publication followed by a candid discussion on art publishing at Concordia University.
From 2pm – 2:30pm, publishers will take visitors on a guided tour of a recent book, presenting an insider’s view on how the book is structured, highlighting key content and production decisions made throughout the publishing process.
In discussion, the publishers will present a variety of points of view on art book production and readership. From artist’s books to scholarly monographs, exhibit catalogues to independent zine production, insights into who we publish for, when we decide to publish and why it is an important part of the University art and research ecosystem.
With Nathan Brown, Professor of English, Director of the Centre for Expanded Poetics, and Michael Nardone, editors of the Documents series; Nicole Burisch, director, Faculty of Fine Arts Gallery; maya rae oppenheimer, artist-publisher, OK Stamp Press; Ryan Van Huijstee, interim director & acquisitions editor, Concordia University Press; Pip Day, director, Leonard Bina Ellen Gallery.
4:00 PM – 5:00 PM : Interrogations: Artists’ books and social causes, discussion by FARR – Fine Arts Reading Room, NoRoutine Books and ARCMTL
Watch the full youtube video of the event here!
Discussion by FARR – Fine Arts Reading Room and ARCMTL about artist books and authors who interrogate social issues through their craft. Accompanied by a pop-up exhibit of examples of fine artists’ books from NoRoutine Books, FARR and ARCMTL collections.
With ARCMTL director Louis Rastelli and FARR librarians Aly Turgeon and Elena Martin.
5:30 PM – 9:00 PM: ARTEXTE – Céline Huyghebaert – The Omissions – Opening
Artexte, 2 St Catherine St E #301
“The Omissions are those missing pieces subtracted from history, the voluntary or involuntary gaps, the voids, the holes in official stories. But they are also the suppressions we impose upon ourselves: everything we keep quiet about, everything we prevent from happening.
This project outlines a fragmentary portrait [of a.]; a fictional artist, a montage composed of voices, images, and documents gathered over the course of correspondences and residencies in documentation centres – at La Chambre blanche (2016), and at Artexte (2018-2019) … I asked myself if it was possible to describe a history of art that is not about success or productivity, but rather one that is found in the gaps of these documents, in what is left unsaid.” ⎯ Céline Huyghebaert
Céline Huyghebaert develops a grammar of silence at the crossroads of literature and the visual arts. She has been awarded several major recognitions, including the Bronfman Fellowship in Contemporary Art for her artistic practice (2019), the Governor General’s Literary Award for Le drap blanc (Le Quartanier, 2019).
FRIDAY, October 4
1:00 PM – 2:00 PM: Textures of Book History exhibit and Guided Tour of the McGill Book Arts Lab
McGill University, Rare Books and Special Collections Library
3610 McTavish
The Textures of Book History exhibit includes irreplaceable witnesses to the story of book history from its origins as clay tablets through the mass-produced nineteenth-century editions. Writing systems and their scripts develop alongside innovations in materials that support the text, which in turn, influenced the resulting form of the book as object. As writing is a communication process of ideas, various intellectual movements will also impact form.
Officially launched in 2020, the Book Arts Lab is a small printing room located within the Rare Books and Special Collections Library. The Book Arts Lab currently houses three functional printing presses: the Columbian, an iron press dating back to 1821, making it the oldest of its kind in North America; a Golding Pearl Press (1912); and a Farley British proofing press, made in the 1960s. McGill Library is also fortunate to hold two additional presses that await restoration: a Stanhope press, manufactured in Britain between 1813 and 1824; and a Washington press, manufactured by R. Hoe & Co. of New York around 1825.
2:30 PM – 4:30 PM: Discussion on B42: Graphic and Typographic Design of Books
UQAM – School of Design, 1440 Sanguinet
Alexandre Dimos, founder of Éditions B42; Matthias Kreutzer, typography professor at the UQAM School of Design
Alexandre Dimos founded the publishing house Éditions B42 in 2008. He also cofounded the deValence graphic design studio in 2001.
In his presentation, Alexandre will explore the synergy between these roles, discussing how they intersect and influence one another. He will address the role of publishing in graphic design practice and the importance of graphic design processes within a publishing context.
The talk will be followed by a brief conversation between Alexandre Dimos and Matthias Kreutzer, professor of typography at the École de Design. Afterwards, an informal gathering will include an exhibit of the archives of the École de Design’s Pica annual publication and a selection of important books published by B42.
SATURDAY, October 5
12:00 PM – 5:00 PM: Volume 7 MTL Fair
Casa D’Italia
505 Jean-Talon St E
On October 5 and 6, the doors of Casa d’Italia, located directly across from Jean-Talon Metro Station, will open from noon to 6 PM to bring together over fifty artists, writers, and publishers of art books and magazines from across Canada and beyond. Admission is free for the public—it’s a great opportunity to discover new finds.
This is the only bilingual fair in America and the only one in the international network of art book fairs held in Quebec!
See the list of exhibitors here
Saturday, October 5, and Sunday, October 6, 2024: annual Duplicate Book Sale main event, between 12:00 pm and 6:00 pm
Come shop, browse, and read, and who knows, you might find a treasure! Discover some wonderful exhibition catalogues, rare books, small publications, art magazines, and much more!
1:30 PM: “Matter vs. Spirit: On publishing to find comrades”: Discussion with graphic designer and author Kevin Yuen Kit Lo
Matter vs. Spirit is a design research project led by Kevin Yuen Kit Lo on publication practices (independent / experimental / counter-cultural / urgent) in relationship to contemporary social justice movements. Grounded in an understanding of publishing as a creative and political practice, we are thinking (and working) through zines, pamphlets, and artists’ books and their methods and spaces of circulation to build low end theory on typo/graphic material culture with a horizon towards our collective liberation. Matter vs. Spirit is also a micro-press in the making, housed at Concordia’s Department of Design and Computation Arts.
The project is in its very early stages, emerging from Kevin’s recent book Design Against Design (2024, Set Margins’).
Filling Gaps is a speculative typeface that consists of reimagined Chinese ideograms which all have diverse visual forms, unique sounds, and tell a story of their creation. As a trans Teochew artist / activist / designer, Le Lin explores different ways in which typography can illustrate certain aspects of our lives, either through unlearning or relearning it. What are the origin stories of the words we use daily? How does language govern the way we perceive ourselves? Who has the right to reimagine our futures?
Le Lin is a trans Teochew-Canadian multi-disciplinary artist, activist, and researcher based in Tiohtià:ke, Montréal. Most of their recent works have been silk-screen or risograph-printed artist books, always pushing the boundaries of traditional books. Le Lin is a firm believer in mobilizing art as a tool of resistance, instigating acts of vulnerability, and channels to uplift one another.
3:00 PM: Discussion with Michael Nardone and Mark Nowak
Remarkable poet Mark Nowak – author of the books Social Poetics and Coal Mountain Elementary, and Montréal-based poet and editor Michael Nardone discuss the contours of Nowak’s singular literary production over these last two decades. The discussion will focus on Nowak’s ongoing body of worker poetry – represented in his groundbreaking books such as Shut Up Shut Down and Coal Mountain Elementary – to open up discussion on Nowak’s most recent book Social Poetics, which documents the imaginative militancy and emergent solidarities of a new, insurgent working class poetry community rising up across the globe.
6:15 PM: Film Premiere, Fanzinat
Cinema Public- Casa D’Italia
505 Jean-Talon St E. Tickets available here
FANZINAT – Passion and Stories of Zines in France, 2022
A film by Laure Bessi, Guillaume Gwardeath, and Jean-Philippe Putaud-Michalski.
Zines are handmade publications driven by enthusiasts of niche and even underground cultures, often against all odds. They represent a unique – yet largely unknown – form of press and publishing. The film tells the story of the zine-fair scene in France by meeting those who have shaped it and continue to do so. Science fiction, comics, punk or rap music movements, graphic design, sports, tattooing, social issues… The variety of causes and themes seems limitless.
8:30 PM: Electro-vocal performance by Sury-Tanuki
Le Cheval Blanc, 809 Ontario St E. Free admission
Tanuki, master of electronic engineering, and Caroline Sury, a yolo ethnologist with stacked verbs, meet in a deliciously chaotic fusion.
Their collaboration, tinged with sonic seum, gives birth to a documentary where phylacteries dent themselves on a sonic wax, creating an effect both captivating and singular. It’s a daring blend of Tanuki’s musical skills and Caroline Sury’s unbridled artistic expression, offering a unique and unpredictable sensory experience. Caroline Sury’s universe is undeniably rooted in the experience of reality, which she transposes and explores through various artistic forms such as drawing, collage, painting, animation, comics and video installation.
SUNDAY, October 6
12:00 PM – 5:00 PM: Volume 7 MTL Fair, Day 2
Casa D’Italia, 505 Jean-Talon St E
1:30 PM – “ Haitian Art Books now” Presentation by Frantz Voltaire
Frantz Voltaire will present new titles on Haitian art. In partnership with the CIDIHCA.
Frantz Voltaire is currently the president of the International Center for Documentation and Information on Haiti, the Caribbean, and Afro-Canada (CIDIHCA), which he founded in 1983. Throughout his career, he has produced documentaries and published books and articles on themes relating to the Haitian diaspora and cultural history. He is currently the director of the Academic Journal of Haitian History.
2:30 PM: Bootlegger Magazine: Promoting Montreal’s Underground Culture
Founded in 2021 by Claire Lamarre-Niemi, Bootlegger Magazine was created to provide a space for Montreal’s up-and-coming artists to showcase their work without restrictions. Bootlegger Magazine is an effort at uplifting the creative youth beyond the limits of traditional art institutions. It serves as a physical anthology of underground talent. The team behind Bootlegger is devoted to offering a platform for innovative artists that are underrepresented in the conventional art world.
Its curation is led by a playful, eclectic and contemporary vision that stays dynamic by covering a broad range of artwork. From painting to nail art, textiles, tattoos, all the way to graphic design and ceramics, Bootlegger is about inclusivity and celebration, and aims to archive the current artistic zeitgeist. It immortalizes the work of promising young talent outside of the confinement of the digital world.
3:30 PM : NoRoutine Books (Lithuania) with Michel Campeau (QC)
As part of the release of their book The Lilliputian Presence of the Photographer in the Four-Colour World of the Postcard by Michel Campeau, which will be published on October 4, a discussion will be organized with the publishers and the artist.
NO-ROUTINE BOOKS
Honored guests of Volume 7, NoRoutine Books is an independent publishing initiative from Lithuania dedicated to designing and printing unique art books. Publications are limited to 99 copies, making them rare and valuable works for collectors and art enthusiasts. Each book is meticulously crafted, blending creativity and artisanal skill, and reflects an innovative approach to contemporary publishing.
Michel Campeau is a Canadian photographer and collector. He is a member of the Groupe d’action photographique alongside Claire Beaugrand-Champagne, Gabor Szilasi, Roger Charbonneau, and Pierre Gaudard. He is passionate about the darkroom and silver printing.
