Critical Distance at the Edition Art Book Fair

featuring Dominica Publishing and works by Martine Syms, Lauren Anderson, Hannah Black, Marco Braunschweiler, Erin Christovale & Amir George, David Hartt, Sara Knox Hunter, and Diamond Stingily; plus Eve Fowler; Claire Goodwin; and Leslie Hewitt, Matt Keegan, Michael Queenland & Lori Salmon; Kevin Haas; Sophie Calle; Tings ChakManar Moursi & David Puig; Jeannette Ehlers; and selected publications and editions produced by Typology Projects and Critical Distance Centre for Curators

Critical Distance is pleased to participate in the first Edition Art Book Fair, running concurrently with Art Toronto at Metro Toronto Convention Centre. Our exciting and eclectic array of artist’s books, publications, and editions comprises selections by CDCC Founding Director Shani K Parsons and CDCC Advisory board members and volunteers, Katie Lawson, Johanne Provencal, and Veronika Ivanova, as well as selected publications related to our exhibition and events programs.

Shani K Parsons presents new and recent works from Dominica Publishing, an artist-run venture initiated by Martine Syms. Based in Los Angeles, Dominica is dedicated to exploring blackness as a topic, reference, marker and audience in visual culture. Among the many fascinating works we will have are Sara Knox Hunter’s There Is Nothing To Divide Us If We Do Not Exist, a book of “sci-fi poems” comprising reviews, including fictional reviews of other fiction, and a biographical story that uses sci-fi to think through otherness, adoption, and identity. Two works by Syms herself will also be on view: Book of Fate (published by Miniature Garden) and A Thread Or Line That Holds Things Together: 99 Subtle Maneuvers (published by Publication Studio Oakland).

Katie Lawson’s selection reflects her curatorial interest in the mediums and contexts of the artist book, the photograph, the exhibition, and the museum itself. Eve Fowler’s The Difference is Spreading emerges out of the artist’s five-year engagement with the poetry of Gertrude Stein. Clare Goodwin’s The Museum of the Unwanted takes the custodial aspect of the museum model as a starting point to explore the influence of particular cultures of collecting on artistic practice.

Johanne Provencal and Veronika Ivanova have each chosen to present a single artist’s work for Edition. Kevin Haas’ hand-printed and bound artist’s books, Toronto Builds and Construction Hoarding, have been selected by Provencal for how they bear witness to the ongoing transformations of our city. Sophie Calle’s Blind, selected by Ivanova for its sensitive handling of a difficult topic, comprises interviews focused on the inner worlds of Calle’s subjects in relation to their loss or lack of sight, matched with the artist’s photographic responses.

CDCC will also present two new books related to our Fall 2016 program: Manar Moursi & David Puig’s Sidewalk Salon: 1001 Street Chairs of Cairo (co-presented in a recent artist’s talk with SAVAC and Women & Gender Studies Workshop); and signed debut copies of Jeannette Ehler’s Say It Loud. Ehlers and eight other artists from Denmark will be featured in our next exhibition, Crossing the Line, curated by Earl Miller. Representing the interests and approaches of just a few of our many participants and contributors, as well as CDCC‘s larger engagement with creative practices on both local and international stages, our presentation is a vibrant snapshot of a curatorially focused community that continues to evolve and expand. Get in touch to find out how you can get involved!



image: selected works to be presented by CDCC at Edition, by Claire Goodwin, Marco Braunschweiler, Laurie Anderson, Sophie Calle, Martine Syms, Leslie Hewitt, Matt Keegan, Lori Salmon, and Michael Queenland, and Eve Fowler