Counterculture guerrillero AA Bronson has been a force in the creative world since the 1960s. Through writing and photography, he famously rejected the idea of traditional sexual categories, and was active in the early stages of the queer movement. In 1969, along with Felix Partz and Jorge Zontal, he created General Idea, a Toronto-based collective of artists who pioneered conceptual art. Together, they also created the Art Metropole, an art book publisher that produced, among other titles, his own magazine FILE, an underground LIFE magazine.
In fact, when Sol LeWitt and other artists founded Printed Matter, they based it on Art Metropole. In 2004, AA became director of Printed Matter, turning it into an internationally renowned cultural beacon, most notably with the creation of the NY Art Book Fair less than a decade ago. Yesterday, the first-ever LA Art Book Fair debuted to much fanfare. But AA is also a healer and an artist whose performances deal with death and spirits. Jeremy and I had the pleasure of visiting him at his Chelsea apartment.
Alexandre Stipanovich: What sparked the idea of an art book fair?
AB: New York has been declining as a center for art books over the past 30 years. There used to be amazing, famous art books stores in the 70s and 80s. Wittenborn, on Madison across from The Whitney, was probably the best. But beginning in the early eighties, they progressively all closed. At the same time, great museum shops began disappearing, like the New Museum had a fantastic shop when they were on Broadway––now it's just a gift shop. The MoMA bookshop used to be much better in terms of books, too.
So we wanted to put books back on the map and at the same time create a community. Within three months, we opened our first book fair and we had 70 exhibitors. It happened very quickly. Everybody was very interested. The last fair at PS1 had 283 exhibitors, and more than 20,000 people came through. So it's turned into this gigantic event but it's really an art community event––a lot of artists, young publishers, and people like that.
AS: You show a lot of zines at the fair, too.
AB: That as well; we have a big section of zines. We had 83 zines stands this year in the tent––a whole section. And at the LA Art Book fair, we have a whole building of them! We're calling it Zine World and there's a theatre in it called Zine World Theatre. We have a whole program of zine related talks, videos, films, and performances as well… It'll happen just for the four days of the fair.
AS: Are there separate curators for each section, like the book and zine section?
AB: No, I'm afraid it's just me. [Laughs] In LA I worked with Darin Kline on the zine aspect. We're doing three exhibitions of zines this year. One is all the publications of Christopher Russell, the Los Angeles artist; another is a show of an early zine called Skate Fate, which is an LA-based skateboarding zine from the eighties; and then the third is called Zine Masters of the Universe, showing the zines of Dash Snow, Ari Marcopoulos, Mark Gonzales, and Raymond Pettibon. It's quite a stunning exhibition.
AS: You started your career in the world of counterculture.
AB: [Pu
In fact, when Sol LeWitt and other artists founded Printed Matter, they based it on Art Metropole. In 2004, AA became director of Printed Matter, turning it into an internationally renowned cultural beacon, most notably with the creation of the NY Art Book Fair less than a decade ago. Yesterday, the first-ever LA Art Book Fair debuted to much fanfare. But AA is also a healer and an artist whose performances deal with death and spirits. Jeremy and I had the pleasure of visiting him at his Chelsea apartment.
Alexandre Stipanovich: What sparked the idea of an art book fair?
AB: New York has been declining as a center for art books over the past 30 years. There used to be amazing, famous art books stores in the 70s and 80s. Wittenborn, on Madison across from The Whitney, was probably the best. But beginning in the early eighties, they progressively all closed. At the same time, great museum shops began disappearing, like the New Museum had a fantastic shop when they were on Broadway––now it's just a gift shop. The MoMA bookshop used to be much better in terms of books, too.
So we wanted to put books back on the map and at the same time create a community. Within three months, we opened our first book fair and we had 70 exhibitors. It happened very quickly. Everybody was very interested. The last fair at PS1 had 283 exhibitors, and more than 20,000 people came through. So it's turned into this gigantic event but it's really an art community event––a lot of artists, young publishers, and people like that.
AS: You show a lot of zines at the fair, too.
AB: That as well; we have a big section of zines. We had 83 zines stands this year in the tent––a whole section. And at the LA Art Book fair, we have a whole building of them! We're calling it Zine World and there's a theatre in it called Zine World Theatre. We have a whole program of zine related talks, videos, films, and performances as well… It'll happen just for the four days of the fair.
AS: Are there separate curators for each section, like the book and zine section?
AB: No, I'm afraid it's just me. [Laughs] In LA I worked with Darin Kline on the zine aspect. We're doing three exhibitions of zines this year. One is all the publications of Christopher Russell, the Los Angeles artist; another is a show of an early zine called Skate Fate, which is an LA-based skateboarding zine from the eighties; and then the third is called Zine Masters of the Universe, showing the zines of Dash Snow, Ari Marcopoulos, Mark Gonzales, and Raymond Pettibon. It's quite a stunning exhibition.
AS: You started your career in the world of counterculture.
AB: [Pu