Some may be tying the city’s “comeback” to giant skyscrapers full of useless office space or exclusive downtown raves, but the real benchmark may be the explosion of attendance at truly grass roots arts events, like the free and awesome SF Art Book Fair this past weekend along Minnesota Street. Hot nerds are back, baby, and they’re DIYing all over Dogpatch.
The three-day, four-night eighth edition of the fair was constantly packed, and sprawled over several venues/galleries associated with Minnesota Street Project (read more about them here). There was a vast KUSF record swap, a Discogs listening room that included such local musical luminaries as Chaz Bear—who was a spotted making art at a book booth later—and Dan the Automator, an adorable William Stout Architectural Books bookmobile which was of course a sleek ’60s European import pickup conversion, and a Humphrey Slocombe truck serving espresso smoothies (h/t to my cool friend Marion for clueing me into that one).
SF Art Book Fair on Sunday, July 13 
Colorful prints, I wanted all of them 
Can Can Press booth from CDMX 
Josh Cheon of Dark Entries Records 
Boogers! at the Korean American Artists Collective booth 
Lee Reymore of Mod Lit Books 
Swaggg 
Karl Marx, ass man 
Dan The Automator playing 45s in the Discogs Listening Room 
KUSF Rock ‘n Swap 
Sweet KUSF kids 
The Stout Books Mobile 
SF Art Book Fair co-organizer trinity West
And then of course, the main affair: Dozens of vendors whose 150+ booths burst with artistic spirit and the yummiest limited edition tomes and zines you could imagine. Yes, there was Dark Entries pitching their latest reprint “The Butch Manual,” a tongue-in-cheek guide to the gay clone scene of the ’80s. Yes, there was Mod Lit Books, with vintage Cramps and The SF Eagle bar posters, plus a first edition Anarchist Cookbook. Yes, there were Karl Marx booty shorts from Conventional Projects. Tons of colorful prints, mags, kerchiefs…. look, if you have to tell your broke self “I have to get out of here” within 10 minutes of arriving, but stay anyway for hours, the event is a success.
Also, like me and three other people had our phones out. How perfect is that.
Most astounding of all is the whole was pulled off by a core team of three dedicated powerhouses from the Minnesota Street Project Foundation—Emma-Caitlin Cooper, Lisa Ellsworth, Trinity West—plus fair director Gaelan McKeown and curator David Senior, with help from a bunch of local partners. Truly a family effort that reflects what SF really is. Go read a thing!
