Thoughts from the Small Publishers Fair etc

I'm using the excuse of having just come back from this fair at the Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, to get back into writing this blog. I should of course have advertised it beforehand, but I wasn't actually exhibiting, just supporting Altazimuth ( and he was on the computer getting his stuff ready ).
I must say it was great having time to be a punter ( even tho I rushed off to Chichester on the first afternoon for the PV of the Eileen Agar show at Pallant House - which is a really exciting exhibition, on until 15 March 09 )
www.pallant.org.uk
Altazimuth was next to Atlantic press and they were lovely neighbours; they publish works by first time authors of graphic literature. They had some good Grimms Fairy Tales. www.atlanticpressbooks.com
On the other side was Perro Verlag from Canada - Mayne Island off the west coast
www.perroverlag.com
-we had some good talks about why we do what we do.
I always love RedFoxPress and Antic-Ham
www.Antic-Ham.com
-fantastic screen-printed books and collaged stuff in rich colourful abundance.
And on Morning Star Publications I was really pleased to find the book and CD of the piece I liked so much at an otherwise very lacklustre Haywood show last year. It's called Journey to the Lower World by Marcus Coates and I thought it had a strange integrity that hovered on lots of interesting boundaries; I can't wait to see it again after a passage of time.
www.platformprojects.org
www.alecfinlay.com
and I liked some of Alec's projects too.
Road Books - Judy Kraus and Peter Morgan - had a really beautiful book on their stand too - Pages from the Powder Magazine;" Rimbaud's explosive inner life among the cryptic rocks of West Cork"....
www.roadbooks.ie

What am I doing?
I actually found a bit I had written a few weeks ago just now when cleaning up my files trying to answer this question
but I have since got back to just carrying on doing things, cutting up old prints again and re-arranging them into little books, very therapeutic, destroying to create and all that
I keep going off at a tangent from my main lines of thought but sometimes you just need to do that...
I'm exhibiting at Judy Stevens Open House in Clifton Street Brighton for the first two weekends of December
and I've booked in for the next Bristol Book Fair next April
otherwise I am just cracking on

So What is it I’m doing….


It is said that the people in it who are most happy are those who can exercise some measure of control in their lives and workplaces.
Books are complex concepts and structures, and often used as a metaphor for a world. Making books is a supreme act of attempted control, even though, like the world, books can take on a life of their own. When things get out of control it’s exciting, like going to a new place.