The tenth Manchester Artists' Book Fair is now history.  We held workshops, had a beautiful Western Wilds exhibition, and set up a Reading Room.  There were definitions from a Lost Dictionary and, across in MMU Special Collections, talks to introduce their collection of artists' books.  And, of course,  lots of lovely and incredibly varied work from all over Britain - book arts cover so much ground. 

The 'previous fairs' page has been updated to direct you to this year's fair as well as earlier ones, and there are plenty of photos - either to remind you of what you saw or to let you know what you missed. 

What on earth shall we do to make next year's fair as full?  Watch this space - but not just yet :)

That's it folks, we've now filled all our tables and have no more room this year.  However, everybody knows that sometimes plans have to change at very short notice, so we are happy to keep a waiting list of those who might like to take up the late offer of a table, should one suddenly be available.  Just get in touch using the contact form.

We're going for added value at this year's fair, and have organised all sorts of extras, from an exhibition of a collaborative project between college art departments in the Wirral and the USA, to various workshops to do with (well what a surprise) books, and taking in our Reading Room and the chance to discover curious words on the way.  Most events won't need to be booked, but if you want to learn about a flower fold, or try blackout story-writing in a beak book, then you should save yourself a place.  For more details have a look at what to see and do at the fair. and if you want to take part in a workshop, let us know using the contact form.

So we've started on this year's flyers and already they're causing a bit of a stir - all that colour!  We couldn't resist a picture to show just some of the shades of colourplan paper generously provided by G F Smith - we haven't even worked our way through the whole range yet. 

MABF is feeling very lucky today, as G F Smith, the business that brings us a billion (well, maybe not quite that many, but it must be close...) different shades and weights of paper, joins with the book fair to provide paper and card for our bookmark flyers and for our mini-workshops.  Shall we be restrained, shall we limit ourselves to a small range of colours?  Shall we heck!

Thank you G F Smith, and we look forward to working with you.