September 27 and 28, works on paper will take center stage at the Home Ave DIY Skate Park for the inaugural Dayton Art Book Fair. OKO Studio's Adair Tudor and Brandon Berry visited the WYSO studios to talk about the event with music director Juliet Fromholt live on Kaleidoscope.
"For our art book fair, we're getting more experimental with our definition," said Tudor. "It could be zines. It could be anything self-independently published. It could be art prints. It could be photography. And just about anything that you could imagine that kind of falls within the independent press and publishing world."
Adair says planning for the event has happened quickly, "It wasn't even a twinkle in our eye up until maybe a month and a half or two months ago." But that the Home Ave DIY Skate Park made perfect sense for a location because of its built-in DIY spirit and ability to house pop-up events.
For Berry, the event has been a way to collect his own work into a physical book, a longtime dream, "To still hold on to something like this in such a digital world is very important. It's not very long. It's 130 pages. But I'm super proud of it. And I'm holding it in my hand. It's awesome."
" I think it's important to be able to exchange ideas in a way that is tangible in a digital world," said Tudor. "Not only just ideas, but our art. And it's just the feeling of it being in your fingers. And it leaves a lasting memory on your skin. It's such a sensory experience. I personally just love having things that I can put on my wall and pick up and put down and not forget about two seconds later. It becomes part of your collection and something that holds dear. And it becomes nostalgic as well. I would say, though, especially now, it's a great way to, an important way to share information amongst your community members."
