Manchester Artists Book Fair (MABF)
Hot Bed Press will not be running a stand-alone Manchester Artists' Book Fair this year. However we are organising a much bigger event in the run-up to Christmas; The Hot Bed Press Christmas Print Fair which will also incorporate book arts, zines and lots more besides. This will be on Sunday 1st December between 11.00am and 5.00pm.
The event will have between 50 and 60 stands in our huge ground floor showing and selling all things print and book arts. Stands will be £50 each.
We think it's a great opportunity to marry up printmaking, bookmaking, zines and a wide variety of printed goods. We will also be able to attract bigger crowds and to run other things alongside.
We are aiming to launch this and start taking bookings for tables in early October.
Anyone who has previously been on our MABF mailing list will be sent information. It promises to be a wonderful heady mix of book arts and print.
Manchester Artists' Book Fair started way back in 2006. Launched by Manchester School of Art's Neil Grant and the Righton Press. In 2009 Hot Bed Press had so many members with tables at the fair as well as our own Hot Bed Press stand/s Neil asked us whether we would take over the running of the whole event. So in 2010 we started running MABF with the 5th Manchester Artists' Book Fair. It was a huge success and we expanded to include artists' talks events, lectures, links with Special Collections and performances.
All good things come to an end, and with the expansion and development of MMU and The Holden Gallery the university were unable to offer us the space from 2016. No sooner had we announced the sad news we were approached by Design Manchester to see whether we could run the book fair at a different venue and link with the bigger Design Manchester festival.
In 2016 we teamed up with Design Manchester and worked alongside Manchester Print Fair in a one-off event at Piccadilly Fire Station. It was a great event and very well attended. We had to reduce the number of tables to just 20 tables. We had been really fortunate to have the large Holden Gallery at Manchester Metropolitan University, (MMU), School of Art, which was a great setting and able to accommodate 43 tables.
In 2017 we had hoped to again work with Design Manchester, but the Design Manchester team could not secure us a venue in time, so we reluctantly had to take a break. To be honest, with all the work going on at Hot Bed Press with us buying our building, undertaking major works on the building and expanding our facilities we were relieved to have a breather.
In October 2018 we had a smaller pop-up event at Chapter One in The Northern Quarter with space for 20 tables in a vibrant, friendly environment. It was
a lovely atmosphere. The event was organised by a team of Dawn Walters, Paulette Bansal and Hazel Roberts. Thanks to them! They put so much work into putting on this event.
We're on twitter - @mcrartbookfair
In case you're wondering what we mean by Artists' Books, they're books made by artists. Well, aren't all hand-made books made by artists? Yes - but consider the possibilities. This is about bookbinding, and printing, and paper... but so much more. It could involve photo-journalism, maps, wooden type, memories, observation, chapbooks, opinions, illustration, letterpress, journals, zines, pamphleteering... or taking existing books and reworking them - check out the photos on this site to see what we mean. Are we stretching the definition of a book past breaking point? Try and stop us.
One thing is certain - artists' books are created by artists with stories to tell and things to be expressed that just can't be expressed in any other way. There's room for a lot of interpretation and a lot of play. There's definitely something for everyone - maybe you'll be inspired to have a go yourself...
All good things come to an end, and with the expansion and development of MMU and The Holden Gallery the university were unable to offer us the space from 2016. No sooner had we announced the sad news we were approached by Design Manchester to see whether we could run the book fair at a different venue and link with the bigger Design Manchester festival.
In 2016 we teamed up with Design Manchester and worked alongside Manchester Print Fair in a one-off event at Piccadilly Fire Station. It was a great event and very well attended. We had to reduce the number of tables to just 20 tables. We had been really fortunate to have the large Holden Gallery at Manchester Metropolitan University, (MMU), School of Art, which was a great setting and able to accommodate 43 tables.
In 2017 we had hoped to again work with Design Manchester, but the Design Manchester team could not secure us a venue in time, so we reluctantly had to take a break. To be honest, with all the work going on at Hot Bed Press with us buying our building, undertaking major works on the building and expanding our facilities we were relieved to have a breather.
In October 2018 we had a smaller pop-up event at Chapter One in The Northern Quarter with space for 20 tables in a vibrant, friendly environment. It was
a lovely atmosphere. The event was organised by a team of Dawn Walters, Paulette Bansal and Hazel Roberts. Thanks to them! They put so much work into putting on this event.
We're on twitter - @mcrartbookfair
In case you're wondering what we mean by Artists' Books, they're books made by artists. Well, aren't all hand-made books made by artists? Yes - but consider the possibilities. This is about bookbinding, and printing, and paper... but so much more. It could involve photo-journalism, maps, wooden type, memories, observation, chapbooks, opinions, illustration, letterpress, journals, zines, pamphleteering... or taking existing books and reworking them - check out the photos on this site to see what we mean. Are we stretching the definition of a book past breaking point? Try and stop us.
One thing is certain - artists' books are created by artists with stories to tell and things to be expressed that just can't be expressed in any other way. There's room for a lot of interpretation and a lot of play. There's definitely something for everyone - maybe you'll be inspired to have a go yourself...
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