Terence Hannum Interviews PMF7 Participant Sonel Breslav of Blonde Art Books
Blonde Art Books will be presenting their newest book, The Dust, the greeting cards project called Words With Love, and a new t-shirt they recently made, #notsolelyaboutreproduction.
Give us a brief history of Blonde Art Books. When did you start publishing books, where are you based and what would you say are your guiding principles to making your publications?
Blonde Art Books (https://blondeartbooks.com/), established in 2012, is a Brooklyn based organization dedicated to promoting small press and self-published art books through exhibitions, book fairs, talks, and online exposure. The first book published under the Blonde Art Books imprint was Kitsch Encyclopedia by Sara Cwynar, 2014 (http://saracwynar.com/).
I saw that in 2013 you were in a physical space, what is the difference between curating a physical space and generating an art publication? Are there any similarities?
We regularly ask ourselves – what is the best way for Blonde Art Books to participate in the self-publishing community? How as a platform can we best represent the energy, ingenuity, and vision that we continuously encounter? There isn’t one answer, and this may be why Blonde Art Books remains an indefinable project. Organizing exhibitions has always been an important component of the project. Exposure of printed matter and publications through exhibiting is a form of distribution, which I am very interested in.
Why printed material? What is it about the physical over the digital? Do you ever augment your printed work with web based approaches (please provide us with links – if so)?
The project began and continues as a blog (www.blondeartbooks.com) and I see digital and online platforms as positive forms of the distribution of materials, resources, and ideas.
What are you most looking forward to seeing at the Open Space Prints and Multiples Fair?
I’m always energized by being in the same room with my peers and I’m excited to see what Baltimore’s publishers have been working on since last year. I’m especially looking forward to seeing some friends from out of town including Andy Gabrysiak who I met in Detroit during BABS Tour 2013, Julia Klein of Soberscove and Marc Fisher of Temporary Services, from Chicago as well as Aidan Koch’s solo show at Open Space.
Was there a specific artist or art publication that got you into creating or printing these yourself and starting a press? If so, what was it? Do you still have it?
I can’t say specifically, I work in a gallery and own a lot of art books. In some ways, the project did begin from my bookshelf – and from my desire to learn more about the material as well as the content.
Will you be debuting a special edition or new publication at the fair? If so tell us about it.
On display will be Words With Love, a new and on-going project that was produced in collaboration with artist Cara Benedetto and publisher Small Editions, who is also participating in PMF this year. Words With Love is an on-going project by women who have come together to engage voice, activism, and heart in the form of greeting cards. The cards are risograph printed with original text and artwork in an edition of 100.
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Please check out Blonde Art Books at the Open Space Publications and Multiples Fair, April 9th and 10th at the Baltimore Design School. Both Terence Hannum and BmoreArt will be participating in the PMF so please stop by and say hello.
Author Terence Hannum is a Baltimore based visual artist and musician who performs solo, with the avant-metal band Locrian (Relapse Records) and the dark synthpop duo The Holy Circle. Hannum is an Assitant Professor of Art at Stevenson University. He has had solo exhibitions at Guest Spot (Baltimore), Western Exhibitions (Chicago, IL), Stevenson University, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Gallery 400 at UIC (Chicago, IL). And in group shows at TSA (Brooklyn, NY), sophiajacob (Baltimore, MD), Allegra La Viola (NYC), City Ice Arts (Kansas City, MO) & Jonathan Ferrara Gallery (New Orleans, LA).
