Art book fairs emerge in different places and at different moments, often shaped by specific themes or communities. The publications, exhibitions, projects, and programs presented by publishers and artists may appear as temporary constellations—accidental gatherings in time and space. Yet art book fairs also serve as critical platforms for reflecting on locality, curation, and contemporary publishing culture. People participate with different motivations and expectations. Through these encounters, new distribution channels are formed, and spaces for sharing knowledge and experiences are cultivated.
Since 2022, Common Imprint has visited art book fairs across Asia while building the Reading Room archive dedicated to Asian art books. In 2025, based on these experiences, he co-initiated the BookBook Festival in Seoul to foster connections among independent publishers and circulate their publications. These experiences and insights are now shared as part of an ongoing reflection on the practices, networks, and discourses that shape contemporary art book fairs.
Speaker Bio:
Sam Kim (@o.sam.kim) is a graphic designer based in Berlin. Alongside his work in creating systematic design frameworks, he focuses on strategies and practices that emerge in a self-organised way within the social and cultural contexts that shape visual language, integrating these insights into his design practice.
In parallel, he runs @commonimprint. Common Imprint’s reading room presents over 1000 independent publications from Asia. It aims to create a shared platform and laboratory for investigating publication-related disciplines from South- East– and East Asia. The space hosts talks, events, workshops, and exhibitions related to Asian books in the fields of fine art, photography, film, design, and architecture.