Volume 9 MTL International Art Publishing Festival

oct 1 – 8 2026

Montréal, Québec, Canada

All activities are free and open to the public

Art Book Fair:

oct 3 – 4

11am – 6pm, free entry

l’Agora pavillon Cœur des sciences  de l’UQAM

175, ave. Président-Kennedy, Montréal (Québec) H2X 3P2 (Place des Arts metro)

PROGRAMME

Oct 1

The most beautiful Swiss books / Die Schönsten Deutschen Bücher

École de Design, UQAM, 6^th floor, 1440 rue Sanguinet, Montréal, QC H2X 3X9

Free entry

Vernissage : 5pm

Exhibit : oct 1–10

The École de Design presents the winners of two book design competitions: The Most Beautiful Swiss Books and Die Schönsten Deutschen Bücher (The Most Beautiful German Books).

Each year, the Federal Office of Culture (Switzerland) and the Stiftung Buchkunst (Germany) select the best-designed books from their respective countries. The Swiss competition, founded in 1943 on the initiative of typographer Jan Tschichold, selected 17 titles from among 388 submitted books. The German competition, which has been held for 60 years, distinguished 25 titles from among approximately 600, divided into five categories, ranging from literature to children’s books.

Displaying the two selections side by side allows visitors to compare the juries’ choices, but also raises broader questions: where do these competitions come from, what purpose do they serve today, and what does it mean to represent a country through the design of its books?

Organized by: Louise Paradis and Matthias Kreutzer. With support from the Stiftung Buchkunst and the Swiss Confederation

Oct 2

Volume 9 MTL at 4th Space

4th Space (Concordia University) AND live online!

1400 Blvd. De Maisonneuve Ouest, H3G 2V8

1 – 4 pm

1 pm

Decolonizing Art Book Fairs And Education In Design

Pascale Obolo, Marly Jean-Noel, Victoria Owusu

As the international network of art book fairs continues to expand, what are the organizational and aspirational steps fairs can take to ensure representation by the global south? A discussion by co-author of the workbook Decolonizing Art Book Fairs, Pascale Obolo, who also founded the African Art Book Fair and the AFRIKADAA magazine and artistic and critical laboratory. In discussion with artist Victoria Owusu and Marly Jean-Noel, organizer of the 2026 conference and exhibit L’expérience noire en design.

See a video of the full discussion here.

2 pm

Fine Arts Reading Room Artists’ Books Presentation

A presentation of artists’ books and zines made through Concordia University’s Fine Arts Reading Room Publication Grants in 2025.

See a video of the full presentation here.

3 pm

Condensed Publishing : Preliminary Materials for a theory of the young micro-press

Assistant Professor Kevin Lo (Design and Computation Arts) will present in-process materials from the research-creation project Matter vs. Spirit, an investigation into the aesthetic, theoretical, material, and strategic relationships between publication practices and radical social movements. This event will also act as an informal inauguration of the micro-press with publications available for purchase.

See a video of the full presentation here.

5 pm

The author fears the typesetter, the printer fears the binder, and the designer is afraid of all four. He feels responsible*

École de design UQAM, local DE-6550

1440 rue Sanguinet, H2X 3X9

Free entry.

A conversation between Albert Ferré (CCA, Montreal) and Christoph Gnädig (Spector Books, Leipzig) on the symbiotic relationship between publishers, institutions, and the people who make books.

How does a design or architecture book get made today? Albert Ferré, Director of Publications at the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA), and Christoph Gnädig of Leipzig-based publishing house Spector Books discuss the editorial work of their two houses: the collaboration between institutions, publishers, authors and designers, and what each one brings — and fears — in the making of a book.

A collaboration between the École de design and Volume MTL.

*Jan Tschichold, The Form of the Book, 1975

Oct 3

Volume 9 MTL Art Book Fair Day 1

l’Agora (CO-R500) – pavillon Cœur des sciences de l’UQAM

175, ave. Président-Kennedy H2X 3P2 (Place des Arts metro)

11 am – 6 pm, Free entry

All day:

Collectif 1440 Typography Workshop

Collectif 1440 hosts an open workshop during the Volume MTL fair at the Agora du Cœur des sciences. Drop by whenever you like and stay as long as you like. No experience is necessary. Collectif 1440 is a student type foundry at UQAM’s School of Design.

DDense Sun Press Workshop : Ephemera Edition

Ddense Sun Press brings the printing supplies, and they bring old paper, ephemera, and who knows what else. The result: The Ephemera Edition.

Come print on some old hotel stationary using our table top Golding press from 1876. Find an old map? Set some letterpress text and ornaments and see what happens. You choose the words and we will help you compose the letterpress print of your dreams. Yours to take home!

All day:

A Thesaurus In Writing

With Chantal Pontbriand.

Exhibit of more than half a century of publications and near to 300 essays by Chantal Pontbriand: published in books, essays, catalogues and collective works.

Presented as an editorial landscape, this ensemble brings into view the ongoing lines of inquiry, artists, practices, and contexts that run through a body of writing devoted to art, performativity, exhibitions, events, and transformations in the contemporary world. Visitors are invited to move through this constellation, handle the publications, and discover the multiple trajectories that connect them.

Chantal Pontbriand will be there to welcome you, joined by several colleagues, to engage in conversation with you.

2:30 pm

The Photography Book

With Michel Campeau, Bertrand Carrière, Serge Clément, Richard Baillargeon, and Normand Rajotte.

Moderated by: Mona Hakim

After sharing studio space and darkrooms for several years and participating in group exhibitions, these photographers have each, in their own way, gradually shifted toward digital photography. Is this the end of film photography and darkroom practices? The loss of a shared social life among colleagues?

These photographers remain close and supportive of one another, sharing their evolving visions of photography, particularly through publications. Their passion for the printed image does not seem to have waned over time. Quite the contrary.

While it is now technically easier to produce books, the niche market for photography books seems to be going through the difficult times we are all familiar with. What does the future hold for photography book publishing here?

In French.

6 – 7 pm

Knust: The Pioneers of RISO Print

Documentary film projection (30 minutes); introduction by Jan Dirk de Wilde and Joyce Guley of Knust Press

The documentary KNUST, the pioneers of Riso print tells the story of a post-fluxus art collective “Knust” founded in the 80’s during the large-scale squatter revolt in Nijmegen. Since then, the Knust artists have had an international fame thanks to the authenticity of their colorful printed issues made with the Riso technique.
Knust is an artist collective and independent publisher based in the Netherlands. It was started in 1984 by Jan Dirk de Wilde and, today, Joyce Guley and Astrid Florentinus also help run the group. During its first years, Knust came to be a reference in stencil printing, using mimeographs. The artist collective purchased its first digital duplicator a few years later and, with the experience acquired over time, they host artists from several parts of the world in their Extrapool space. The environment consists of a graphic studio and a publishing house, a sound studio, an event room, and rooms for artistic residencies.

ALSO : Feeding the Birds short film

Feeding the Birds (3 min.) is award-winning playwright Kate Lavut’s first film. The Montreal based artist used paper cut-outs drawn by her father, Canadian filmmaker Martin Lavut (1939-2016), which move across a hand-built stage frame by frame reveling a sinister story expressed not through words but by music. Presented by the director.

Oct 4

Volume 9 MTL Art Book Fair Day 2

l’Agora (CO-R500) – pavillon Cœur des sciences de l’UQAM

175, ave. Président-Kennedy H2X 3P2 (Place des Arts metro)

11 am – 6 pm, Free entry

All day:

Collectif 1440 Atelier de Typographie

2:30 pm

Discussion Lab: Thesaurus In Writing

Bringing together artists, writers, practitioners across the many forms of contemporary art, this discussion, led by Chantal Pontbriand, will explore current issues in contemporary art and writing on art.

In French.

4 pm

Decolonizing the Arts Through Cultural Journals

Renato Rodriguez-Lefebvre (revue Spirale), Mirna Abiad-Boyadjian (revue Le Merle), Marion Zahar (revue Saha – ساحة) discussion led by Sayaka Araniva-Yanez (Librairie CLARK)

Fascism is on the rise, and we are all bearing witness to multiple wars, genocidal violence, ever-increasing precariousness, and various forms of dispossession. How can we, within the spaces and organizations that makeup the arts community, fight for human rights, justice, and the liberation of our communities?

In this discussion, we will explore the role that cultural journals play in these struggles. In particular, we will examine how editorial spaces can and must become sites of resistance, solidarity, and transformation. We will also examine how power dynamics permeate the production, circulation, and legitimization of arts discourse. And we will reflect on how to speak out, construct discourse, and produce knowledge collectively.

We will provide an overview of the structural particularities of the publishing world, its power dynamics, the issues surrounding speech and its representation, and the practices of production and publication as tools of resistance.

The discussion brings together representatives from the journals Le Merle, Saha, and Spirale to put in dialogue different experiences, perspectives, and editorial practices surrounding the issues of decolonization in the arts.

In French.

Oct 6

Guided tour of the Book Arts Lab, McGill University Libraries

Rare Books and Special Collections Library, McGill

McLennan Library, 4th floor

3459 McTavish H3A 0C9

1 – 2 pm

Bilingual event. Registration required.

Officially launched in January 2020 the Book Arts Lab is a small letterpress printing room located in Rare Books and Special Collections. The Book Arts Lab currently houses three functional printing presses: The Columbian, an iron press dating 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. Visitors will have the opportunity to pull two prints to take home.

Hosted by Jacquelyn Sundberg and Jennifer Garland of the Rare Books and Special Collections department.

Glenn Goluska Exhibition

Drop in during opening hours until October 30.

The work of Glenn Goluska (June 26, 1947 – August 13, 2011) prominent letterpress printer and designer working in Montreal in the latter part of his career, is on view now in our reading room. The display includes some of his private collection of books (many designed by, written by, inspired by, or about W. A. Dwiggins), and a selection of his graphic works and professional archive.

Oct 7

ARCMTL Book-Objects

ARCMTL, 6600 Rue Saint-Urbain, H2S 3G6

Suite 306

3 – 5 pm

Bilingual Event. Registration Required.

Open Doors at the ARCMTL Archive Centre, which houses thousands of rare Montreal DIY and independent publications, music, posters, and underground ephemera. Come meet the team and discover a range of rare or unique book-objects from Montreal artists, featuring vintage productions from the 1960s and 1970s, as well more recent experiments in using various objects and forms in the context of a book.

Oct 8

Errances, opening – presentation, Maya Rae Oppenheimer

Artexte, 2 rue Sainte-Catherine Est (room 301)

5 – 8 pm

“Errancies” is the result of a research residency by Maya Rae Oppenheimer (OK stamp press, ddense sun press) at Artexte. The artist will be on hand to present the 13 original works that are part of the exhibit.

Part bibliography, part material interpretation of the poetry of errors. In the words of the artist, “Errances” is “a collection of errancies: wandering and poetic interpretations.

Err-: erroneous, erratic, erratum, errant, errancies.

The prefix “err-” means to go astray or stray from, go wrong in judgement, to make mistakes. Blunder. To be incorrect. To be partial towards. To roam, ramble, or wander. It’s a busy syllable. Given this etymology, “erratum” (singular) or “errata” (plural) are corrective, material traces of what it means to err, in print.

Maya’s initial research intention, when searching through Artexte’s collection, was to find “examples of errata or the need thereof. I am looking for examples of tones (humor, shame, defensiveness), layout, and poetic errors to counter the persistence/existence of a “correct path” or action.”

In French