'bring your own book' is a collective that started as a student initiative at the Gerrit Rietveld academie in 2021. Since then we have been working on an interdisciplinary programme around self-publishing, activated through events, lectures, workshops and book fairs.
From posters to books to zines and cards, some serious, some silly, some hard-covered, some soft, and some surprisingly furry; we have created a fair for everyone engaged in diy, self-publishing to show or sell their work.
In the words of Michael Pichler, art book fairs today serve as “periodically recurring meeting places in real time and real space, where people travel to gather together. One could say that art book fairs today serve the function of marketplaces, but not primarily in the economic sense; rather, they are a physical place accessible to the common public, and a public sphere for negotiation and exchange.”
We focus on community building and bringing together works of makers that are present throughout the production process, acting as a source of inspiration, a place for experimentation, and a connective tissue between different practices and people. byob hopes to encourage makers and appreciators of printed matter to seek one another out and to give each other's work some well-deserved attention and appreciation.
We are excited to invite you to participate in the Warehouse Market, a three-day event from 25-27 October in Amsterdam that offers a place for local makers, designers & publishers to share their self-made garments and fashion- or textile related publications, and exchange knowledge about fashion, clothes and textiles in context.
Visit the BYOB table + browse many other publishers during the coming weekend, at Miss Read — the Berlin art book fair & festival for independant publishing.
Friday-Sunday at HKW Haus der Kulturen der Welt.
Exhibition and book launch by Bring Your Own Book @ Plan B.
bring your own book fair is back in town
10th of May 2024
11:00–20:00
Save the date and join us for the fourth edition of the bring your own book fair at Fred. Roeskestraat 96, Amsterdam
We are excited to announce the 4th edition of the bring your own book fair at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie. This time around we are staying true to our name! All participants will be given a stand to show, sell, or trade their printed matter.
We are happy to invite you to ‘Be Our Guest! A symposium on publishing’ on the 8th of December at the Fedlev Auditorium together with abC - art book in China, Björn Giesecke, Kristina Stallvik and Ott Metusala. They will hold presentations about their individual and collective publishing practices. The talks will be introduced by byob.
Bring Your Own Book will exhibit and sell the self-published works of over 400 artists, bookmakers, designers, publishers and writers from all over the world in ENTER ENTER, celebrating self-publishing and diy-printed matter in a weekly changing display.
For the duration of the week byob is setting up a publishing station at W139. We publish everyone. You are invited to fill out-in-up the given template, which will be printed on demand and distributed in W139 over the span of the week. The publishing station also serves as a display system for the ongoing research on practices around self-publishing. All the printed work left behind will be bound into a publication on the 16th of September
Goodbyes are hard but a small goodbye snack definitely aids the ache, and fills part of the hole left by our friends over at Snacks Amsterdam.
bring your own book is taking over ENTER ENTER for four weeks from the 15th of September until the 15th of October and we are looking for printed matter made by you, your friends and friends of friends of friends. We are programming a 4-week exhibition, display and fair of diy and self published books and other printed matter. The month will be filled with launches, lectures and workshops!
We are happy to announce workshop ‘Fangirls Workout’: join ROTTING FRUITS on May 26 for a workshop working out and with the books and publications surrounding us at the byobfair.
This mapping session called care in action aims to unpack how care and design are connected as well as an attempt to collectively find out how we can bring more care into the (everyday) practice.
This is a collective mapping workshop hosted by Not Just a Collective and facilitated by Lu Lin and Femke Kersten for this edition. During the workshop, we will explore questions such as "What is publishing?" "What can we do to enrich the realm of publishing?" and "How can we co-exist as self-publishers?" Through group discussions and activities, the workshop aims to generate a collective action plan to redefine publishing practices and provide practical guidance for self-publishers in collaboration with participants. The final result of the workshop will contribute to the second edition of the zine.
bring your own book is taking over the pavilion of the Gerrit Rietveld academy from the 11th until the 26th of May!!
Celebrating, discussing and partaking in diy-book making and publishing, the month will be filled with launches, lectures and workshops ending with a book fair. (for which the open call is still up until the 19th of May).
See the schedule below and save the dates!!!
Find Bring Your Own Book & your books at "It's a book" fair in Leipzig, on April 29!
Bring Your Own Book fair is coming back this spring with its third edition & this is our open call for books & performances!
open call: BYOB fair is looking for new people!
Get your printed matter shown, sold and most definitely appreciated in the Rietveld Pavilion.
Bring Your Own Book fair has a temporary shop! Filled with 40+ student-made publications, zines, books and other objects from our students and alumni. And best of all: All your purchases will go directly to the maker! (ex. shipping costs)
The store is open the entire month of February and shipping will happen in the first week of March.
It’s our pleasure to announce the first edition of the Bring Your Own Book fair! On the 25th & 26th of November there is going to be a book market in the Glass Pavilion where all students will be able to sell, perform, read, show, do or be their printed matter.
Susu Lee
Augustinas Milkus
Jordi de Vetten
Sophia Xu
Nemo Molfenter
2021
Bring Your Own Book will exhibit and sell the self-published works of over 400 artists, bookmakers, designers, publishers and writers from all over the world in ENTER ENTER, celebrating self-publishing and diy-printed matter in a weekly changing display.
15 September - 15 October
@ ENTER ENTER, Nieuwe Herengracht 11
15 SEPT
16:00 - “Leaves to Be Seen” by Rush Print
“Leaves to Be Seen” is an ongoing workshop that invites visitors to use the given materials (Worksheets, papers, hole punchers) to create patterns, shapes, and symbols that throughout the month, will be pasted around the exhibition space. With K.Chen, Kasper Quaink, and Helena Hesselink.
18:00 - Opening talk!!!
Talk by byob members Susu Lee, Augustinas Milkus, Nelli Molfenter, Sophia Xu & Jordi de Vetten and ENTER ENTER hosts Hans Gremmen, Roger Willems, Ayumi Highuchi & John Simons
19:00 - Nemo Reading
Surprise text that will be performed by Nelli Molfenter. Based in Amsterdam and Berlin, Nelli Molfenter (Nemo) is a German artist and writer whose work explores themes of intimacy, introspection, and illness. Her work experiments with the healing qualities of storytelling.
16 SEPT
14:00 - 15:00 - Reading by Morgane Billuart & Klara Debeljak of They Love The Idea Of Me
'they love the idea of me' is a catalogue for world-building through objects and artefacts. It’s an invitation to bump into a range of objects such as clothing, decoration, furniture, and household devices that in sum constitute a material topography paradigmatic of our times. Alongside these tangibles, a handful of writers and artists have contributed thoughts and texts that add to the making and meaning of the work. Through sampling, archiving and collaging, our efforts wonder: What makes a good living? What is so tempting about the consumption of image and object? How do we curate our homes, and what symbols do we, knowingly or not, borrow when doing so?
Editorial by Morgane Billuart & Jonas Morgenthaler. Proofreading by Adriana Lasheras Mabanta. Supported by Kulturfonds – Swiss Federal Office of Culture BAK & Pro Helvetia / AiR Berlin Alexanderplatz (ABA). With contributions from Jonas Morgenthaler, Content y Contenido, Masha Ryabova, Mira Samonig, Carmen Lael Hines, Millie Rose Dobree, Klara Debeljak, Anna Rimmel, Enzo Aït Kaci & Morgane Billuart.
22 SEPT
From the 22nd until the 24th bring your own book will curate a special photography book edition for the Unseen weekend in ENTER ENTER. We will highlight photography books and have readings and workshops by guests.
15:00 - Talk by Anna Bulgerelli
16:00 - Talk by Noah van de Wetering
Noah van de Wetering, Zwolle, the Netherlands, 1999, currently lives and works in Utrecht, the Netherlands. In his work, Noah van de Wetering analyses the creative process in experimental approaches toward image-making and reading. His entry points are often photographic techniques, which have led him to question the use of communication. Abstraction is used as a tool to counter the figurative and communicative nature of photography. Besides all the image reading, there are words scattered around the bodies, words of critical reflection as well as nonsensical sentences. These introspective sentences are attempts to come closer and closer to the core of the creative process, a point of pure autonomy.
In addition to the physical work, there are the occasional publishing projects. These projects revolve around the act of merging images and texts into one document. These texts always try to counter the standard exhibition text and instead of informing, they should inspire us to reflect on rather than judge the things we see. These publishing projects are collaborations with graphic designer/artist Noa Wassink. As a duo, they have found their sweet spot when it comes to collaborating on experimental approaches to idea development as well as book design.
18:00 - Talk by Esmée Bruins
23 SEPT
12:00 - 16:00 - Workshop by Eclect Lab
ECLECT Lab was founded in 2017 as a Vienna-based artist collective. Since then it has evolved into a multidisciplinary studio which aims to creatively engage with society. ECLECT Lab consists of Sami Ciftci,Vincent Forstenlechner, Ira Grünberger, Ronja-Elina Kappl and Miles Schleifer. ECLECT Lab is currently based in Vienna, Berlin and Amsterdam.
14:00 - 15:00 - Talk by Peter Pflügler about “Now is not the right time”
"When I was two years old, my father went into the woods, with the intention of never coming back.” Peter Pflügler (AT) takes us on an intimate journey through the labyrinth of a family secret. The suicide attempt of his father was concealed for twenty years. And yet he has always somehow known. Carefully investigating the traces of this silent, dark story, he created images that live on the brink of comfort and irritation, between love and pain. Leafing through this slightly uncomfortable landscape, the viewer is invited to look further and discover texts and images hidden between the pages. Now is not the right time is about the impossibility of secrets, about what we share when we hide, and about intergenerational trauma. It is a work about pain inflicted out of love, the complexity of silence and the inexplicable sadness of a boy. "Mom… Dad… this is your trauma that you kept wrapped up in countless colourful blankets and yet handed over to me in a loving embrace. I will carry it with care."
16:00 - Talk by Suzanne Schols about “LOBBY”
For her book LOBBY Suzanne is working together with HouseTMM, experimenting with a hybrid form of publishing. She is working on a book with them about the lobby world, trying to make it more transparent.
Suzanne Schols (1985) is a Dutch conceptual documentary photographer. She holds a degree in European politics from the London School of Economics and later graduated from the photography department of the Royal Academy of Art The Hague after a career in the political field. Her artistic projects merge these experiences and deal with themes of power, influence, bureaucracy and transparency. Working with image and text, she looks into power structures by revealing the behind the scenes of worlds not generally known.
24 SEPT
15:00 - Presentation by the Rietveld academie photography dep.
28 SEPT
18:00 - 22:00 - launch of WARP (Special Issue of WARP x Soapbox Journal)
This book is the result of the Walking as a Research Practice Conference 2022 Proceedings and is part of the follow-up strategy we have devised regarding the outcomes of the WARP Conference. This event occurred at the Allard Pierson Museum, University of Amsterdam, in September 2022.
The form, design and production of the book was developed in close collaboration between the designer, the editor and the binder aiming for a suggestion of the book to be read while walking. Each design and editing decision followed this idea and resulted in a very specific form of reading and holding. The launch of this book will be a walking and reading session. Starting with a reading by two authors and the editors of the Journal after people will be invited to walk with us while one reads the walking prompt.
A member of the Radical Open Access Collective, Soapbox is an independent and open-access publishing platform. We aim to elevate different voices and promote fresh perspectives on the cultural objects, phenomena, and concepts shaping our world and experiences.
30 SEPT
13:00 - end - “Chop Chop” by Rush Print
In this workshop Rush Print will be introducing their book “Rush Print 003: Chop-Chop Workshop” and the different workshops they led in the 530 Type Club, a student-led typography club at Artez. These include, “Small Smaller Teeny Tiny Letters”, “Letter, form Words”, “Chance of Clouds”, and “Block Block”.
15:15 - Reading by Sanne Kabalt of “The Cough”
The Cough is a combination of words and images. The words follow the trajectory of a cough from deep within the body out into the world. The images are abstracted versions of droplets emitted by coughs, photographed in laboratories. The booklet was self-published by artist Sanne Kabalt and designed by Corine van der Wal, with a riso-printed interior and a cover featuring foldout prints with white ink on black paper. Sanne Kabalt (Amsterdam, 1989) is a Dutch artist who works with the medium of photography, often accompanied by writing.
16:15 - HousePublishing
HousePublishing is established to publish fun, special and valuable projects with and for people that are looking for integrity and craftsmanship. The projects that are published are always eccentric and urgent by nature, with a focus on physical quality and attributes.
6 OCT
15:00 - Workshop by Type_Typed
18:00 - Book launch of “to a well another,” by Jordi de Vetten, Susu Lee & S*an D. Henry-Smith
With readings and a talk by Jordi de Vetten, Susu Lee and S*an D. Henry-Smith.
7 OCT
13:00 - “Tender is the archive” workshop by Parel Wilmering from DykeHouse Press
What if poems are everywhere around us? What if all we have to do is pick up a pair of scissors and get to work? What if every archive can be queered, and what if every queer archive can come into conversation with the present? Come collage a (lack of) narrative out of found archival materials during DykeHouse Press’s Tender is the Archive: collage poetry workshop.
14:00 - 19:00 - Program (to be announced) by Interlude
Interlude is an ever-changing formation of people gathering regularly to collectively un—learn and un—mute through listening and sounding practices. The first edition was initiated by Uma Naddermier, Elsa Baslé and Alva Bücking from the Graphic Design Department at the Rietveld Academie in 2023. The listening sessions took place within the school —open for students, teachers and staff, in the form of readings, screenings, live soundscapes, installations, performances, meditations and other sonic formats.
12 OCT
15:00 - 18:00 - “The public archive” by Soyeon Kim
In this workshop Soyeon Kim will collaborate with the public fair visitors to make a publication with each participant. Visitors are welcome to look through a book archive and choose images and after filling out a form they will receive a personalised publication.
Duration: 1 hour, cost: 5 to 15 € (price varies on page count). Publications can be picked up at the end of the fair on 15th of October, participants will be asked to pay beforehand, and If someone cannot pick up the publication they will be sent via post.
13 OCT
17:00 - 20:00 Program (to be announced) by Outline platform
OUTLINE is a publishing platform and floating collective that aims to create interventions within intermediate spaces, and accelerate an exchange by connecting ideas, artefacts, individuals and localities. The project is currently run by Tjobo Kho, Jan-Pieter ‘t Hart and Wouter Stroet.
14 OCT
14:00 - Talk by Jesse Presse
“Jesse Presse” is an agency and distributor that represents independent art book publishers within the Netherlands and Belgium. Our mission is to bundle publishers of contemporary art, design, culture, photography, urban affairs, philosophy and more, and to make their works more accessible and readily available to bookshops, museums, projects spaces and concept stores. With a personal approach that stems from a love for printed matter and over 15 years of experience in the fields of fine art and books, Jesse Presse aims to create an environment that promotes possibilities for collaboration.
15:00 - Workshop by Foggy Impressions collective Martina Vanini, Sigríður Hannesdóttir & Melanie Cot
Foggy Impressions makes inks from natural ingredients and has been growing plants in ENTER ENTER for the duration of the bring your own book exhibition. For the ending weekend of the exhibition they are going to make ink of these plants and print!
