Print is not dead: How the indie Singapore Art Book Fair has continued to thrive

SINGAPORE – It started as a modest event, held in a quiet corner of Gillman Barracks in 2013 with just 30 exhibitors and 1,000 visitors. It took a month to throw together.

These days, what Ms Renee Ting called a “haphazard” affair back then has more than 100 exhibitors and attracted 4,500 visitors in 2023. It also takes her a year to organise the annual event.

The Singapore Art Book Fair is now widely regarded as the largest and leading art book fair in South-east Asia, and will toast its 10th edition from Oct 25 to 27 at the Singapore Art Museum.

The 2024 iteration will also bring in the organisers of some of the largest art book fairs in the world for the first time, including those of the New York and Los Angeles Art Book Fair, Tokyo Art Book Fair, and abC art book from China.

It will feature a wide selection of artists’ books, zines – self-published, small-circulation booklets – as well as monographs, contemporary art editions, and other printed ephemera from 104 local and international exhibitors.

It is testament to the dedication and drive of its founder, Ms Ting, who had racked up $30,000 in debt while planning the Covid-19-hit 2020 edition.

An experimental and interdisciplinary genre, art books are works of art that take the form of a book.

The independent fair’s decade-long run has been touted by many as an affirmation that ground-up art initiatives can thrive in Singapore – an outcome no one is more surprised by than Ms Ting.

“Hopes? No hopes,” she replied when asked what her dreams for the fair were when she started it while working full-time at an independent art book store.

But somehow, along the way, the fair grew from a chore to “check off a box” into a fervid devotion she was willing to juggle seven freelance jobs for two years to support financially.

Turning the fair into a going concern

The fair started at the suggestion of two of Ms Ting’s friends from a design firm, simply because Singapore did not have an art book fair then.

“Whatever we could rush within the timeline was what we did,” she said, adding that the three of them were too swamped with their full-time jobs. The other two co-organisers are no longer involved with planning the fair.

Ms Ting said: “At the time, there were very few people working in this realm of artist books and zines. My understanding of it at the time was very different.

“What we pulled together was also very preliminary in terms of understanding. We had people selling just very random things that almost had nothing to do with art books. It was either art or books.”

The fair has gone through multiple changes over the years, including opening up the call for exhibitors, visual rebranding, tightening its curation, and introducing ticketing in 2023.

One-day tickets for the fair are $6 online and $8 on site.

Ms Ting, who does not draw a salary from organising the event, said that exhibitors are charged a table fee of between $300 and $550 for a booth – but this covers only a portion of the operational fees.

“We are essentially self-funded, self-organised, which means that a lot of the costs are borne by us,” she said, adding that the fair is run by a small team of about three to four people each year.

The team is paid on a project basis, though it is below market rate.

“When Covid-19 hit in 2020, we went through quite a rut because I had to cancel a lot of things, but I was already paying people,” she said. That was the second year the fair was not held, after Ms Ting decided to skip 2015 for reasons she did not elaborate on.

While ticketing was a means to garner more revenue without increasing costs for the artists, Ms Ting said the move was something that had always been at the back of her mind.

“The principle of paying for the arts in Singapore is very foreign, especially for the general public. Most exhibitions are free, but I think when you put the onus on the public to pay, there is that behaviour of them putting a value to the arts, which in turn, changes how they view art and artists in Singapore,” she said.

Today, the fair is no longer in debt, but it has yet to turn a profit. Among Ms Ting’s hopes for the fair is to be able to make this her full-time career, and to pay the organising team a full wage.

Financial support for artists

Despite the many financial issues the fair has faced over the years, Ms Ting said the team has always made an effort to keep it accessible to both visitors and exhibitors.

The 10th edition will pilot the Artist Support Table, a financial support scheme subsidising more than half of the typical exhibiting fee for selected artists and students.

The only condition the subsidised booth comes with is that the exhibitor’s most expensive item cannot be more than $15, said Ms Ting.

She added: “It’s for students who are experimenting and want to sell books, but also for student audiences who want to buy zines that are not $80.”

Duo collective Fruicart, started by 21-year-old designers Claire Boon and Aida Sevilla, is one exhibitor under the scheme. They both attended the fair for the first time in 2023.

“It helps us financially and manages our expectations. Being a duo with less output, a smaller table takes the pressure (to recoup costs) off and lets us focus on creating publications we love, rather than rushing to fill a larger space with more quantity,” said Ms Boon.

Ms Aida said the fair plays an important role in keeping the spirit of creativity alive. She added: “You don’t need a following to have a booth. It’s really all about the work. This event brings people together, letting us share ideas and inspire one another.”

Growing community

Asked why she has continued organising the fair despite the challenges, Ms Ting said: “It’s part foolishness, part ‘I don’t see myself doing or loving anything else as much’”.

What keeps her going is the community that has grown with the fair – from its exhibitors to volunteers to visitors who return year after year.

“We are nothing without our exhibitors. We are nothing without our visitors. I’m nothing without the team,” she said.

Ms Kimberly Wee’s story with the fair began when she was 16. She would visit the fair to distribute the zines she made with her friends.

Now 24, she helms the fair’s marketing and produced a documentary series illustrating its history across its 10 editions.

She said: “People have been investing their energy into the fair consistently for more than 10 years. They’re not just showing up one day, putting their books for sale and leaving. It’s a very intentional and intimate interaction with the artists who are selling their books to you.”

Ms Wee will also be exhibiting this year as one-fourth of the collective Other People’s Books.

Creative research lab Atelier Hoko, run by husband-and-wife duo Alvin Ho and Clara Koh, has exhibited at every one of the Singapore Art Book Fair’s runs.

Their art book series Science Of The Secondary, which investigates human relationships with inanimate objects, exhibited its first edition at the 2013 fair.

Since then, the publication has released 16 editions, with each fresh rendition of the series coinciding with the annual fair. The series is growing a fervent following.

The pair sold 30 copies at the fair in 2013 and 300 copies at the 2023 edition.

The chance to chat with Hoko’s readers is the most precious part of the fair each year, said Mr Ho.

“We hear things that we don’t hear for one whole year. Only during the fair day do people come up to us and we start to gain new perspectives or insights about our practice.”

Ms Koh said: “You would think that after so many years, they’d be the same people, right? But every year, there are new people who don’t know we’re around, so we get to share with them what our work is about.”

The Singapore Art Book Fair is one of the few spaces in Singapore where people from every node of the creative circle gather, said Ms Ting, adding that the fair plays the unique role of bringing people together for the love of books.

“People are always saying print is dead, but they’ve been saying it for the last 50 years. It’s always taken on different forms, but for some reason, it’s still around.

“The art book fair is somewhere people gather to celebrate this medium that people say is dying. There’s something very special about bringing together people who are not necessarily scholars, literature students or writers, and catering to a wide range of people.”

Book It/Singapore Art Book Fair

Where: Singapore Art Museum at Tanjong Pagar Distripark, 39 Keppel Road
When: Oct 25 to 27, noon to 8pm
Admission: Sold per day, $6 online, $8 on site