Booklyn Artist Alliance (Booklyn) is an artist-run
501(c)(3)nonprofit organization founded in 1999 that works to promote, distribute, and archive
artist books and book arts.[1][2] Booklyn was founded, and continues to be governed by, artists.[3]
Booklyn initially originated out of several artist run projects: The Artichoke Yink Press run by Christopher Wilde, a Bookmobile artist book distribution system run by Wilde and Shon Schooler, and a Tuesday night artist gathering at 70 Commercial Street in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.[3] Marshall Weber, an original co-founder of Booklyn, remains involved as Directing Curator.[3]
Activities
The work of Booklyn involves a wide range of activities: representing contemporary artists; cultivating a distribution network across international institutions that may acquire work by Booklyn artists for their collections; and curating exhibitions in its own gallery space as well as at other institutions.[6] Education efforts at Booklyn involve lectures and workshops on various aspects of bookmaking, including bookbinding and zine-making.[5][7] Educational materials are also distributed through resources such as the Booklyn Education Manual.[8]
The intention of Booklyn's artist-run distribution system was to interrupt the existing distribution networks dominated by private dealers.[3] Booklyn organizes the Sass & Zines: Celebrating QPOC / WPOC in Print event, and in 2019, Booklyn participated in the New York City Book and Ephemera Fair during New York's Rare Book Week by curating a Brooklyn Artists' Fair of forty artists whose work addresses diverse and contemporary issues.[5]
Booklyn has collaborated with
Iraq Veterans Against the War (now About Face[13]), on a series of portfolio projects dating back to the War is Trauma portfolio in 2008; some of these have also involved collaboration with
Justseeds Artists' Cooperative and Combat Paper NJ.[14]
Booklyn's organizational archive is housed at Library of Congress.[9]
Exhibitions
Exhibitions presented by Booklyn include:
Straight out of Booklyn (2017), at Bucknell University Special Collections/University Archives.[11]
'RISE' (May–June 2015), Kelie Bowman, at Booklyn[15]
Conflict Unknown, Lale Westvind (November 2014 - January 2015), at Booklyn[16]
Asshats for Shitheads, Sto Len (September - November 2014), at Booklyn[17][18]
NO/FUTURE, Mike Taylor (January - March 2014), at Booklyn[19]
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abKulp, Louise A. “Teaching with Artists’ Books: An Interdisciplinary Approach for the Liberal Arts.” Art Documentation: Journal of the Art Libraries Society of North America, vol. 34, no. 1, 2015, pp. 101–123. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/680568.