Our art book fair summer season has come to an end. In Switzerland we often use the expression “art fever” season when referring to the period starting with Zurich Art Weekend and culminating with Art Basel. It is a period when commuter trains between both cities are packed, hotel rates reach exorbitant levels well beyond neighbouring country borders and the talk of the town in old city terraces and cafes changes color, through the diversity of the people who meet with that single focus topic in mind – art.
Once more the season lived up to its reputation – also when looking through the art book fair lens. It was equal parts feverish hot and inspiring. New seasonal artwork included.
New collaborations in Zurich
The Most Beautiful Swiss Books exhibition at Helmhaus Zurich kicked off this year’s “art fever” season. Between June 13 and 22 our book “Lotus” was on display alongside all “The Most Beautiful Swiss Books” award nominees. It is always an honour to share space with the best of book design in a given year in Switzerland. It is our second participation, after “Autumn in Japan” in 2023.
To celebrate having a second book at Helmhaus this summer, a couple of copies of “Lotus” are available for purchase at the kunst.buch.kiosk shop next door. This tiny bookstore gem has a very special range of art books, featuring both international rarities as well as artist books with a local connection to Zurich. I highly recommend a stopover here on a Friday-Saturday afternoon walk along the Limmat. I hope we will be able to bring new editions to its shelves going forward.
From one summer landscape…
Over at Löwenbräukunst on June 14, Mini Volumes was set in feminist tones, highlighting women artists from the publishing archives. We decorated to match the mood, and in the early summer heat that purple blue hydrangea on our table became the starting point of art book fair summer in ink.
A piece of sliced cardboard became a potential triptych, then turned into a summer “mountain water” (sansui, 山水) landscape. Featuring different elements of close-up rain through distant running waters, the Mini Volumes rainy season landscape evokes all-around cooling feelings, almost exclusively through the skilful use of monochrome black.
…to the next.
A few days later and we were off to Kaserne Basel for I Never Read 2025. One could tell the happiest-looking visitors from a mile away. They were the ones coming into the exhibition hall straight after a body-cooling swim in the Rhein. A multiple day book fair in the summer heat can be an energy-sapping experience, but I Never Read rarely feels that way.
I snapped the images for my second art book fair triptych early in the week – a seasonal view of the Kaserne Basel entrance featuring its green leaves and early summer blooms.
In Basel, I always experience a confluence of friends, regular collectors and artists dropping by. And at such a steady pace, that the hardest thing is to find the time to paint a second art piece live. Harder than finding the time to visit a perennial favourite – the Volta Show – on a late morning.
From regular encounters…
Friends of many years as well as recent acquaintances in town dropped by to catch up.
Regular collectors looking out for the latest – yes, a small wonderful group of supporters who own all my printed matter and drop by the book fair every year. Quietly waiting for their turn to say hello and exchange a few words again. Often I recognise their faces and greet them with a “welcome back” before they get the chance to out themselves as a “regular”. These are always the most fun moments of the week.
“You must see hundreds of people!”
“Yes, but… visual artist, visual memory!” I reply, with a laughing shrug.
And the artists. From the stand neighbours from Switzerland or Italy – not sure if it’s the name, but I often find myself placed next to Italian publishers at I Never Read – to artists with a strong connection to Japan, I have the most interesting discussions around art and my life journey at I Never Read.
Potential collaborations in the making in a distant future, or just insights into someone else’s attitude to bookmaking or art. Comforting food for the soul, richer than that chocolate mousse consumed under the green shade of the Kaserne park.
… to new artists and…
I also purchase books from fellow artists. I own a small collection of artist books and I walked around the 2025 art book fair this summer looking for one or two new picks. My collection features artist books from or with a connection to Japan, or specific cultural influences that inform my art. This year’s picks:
- Lily Okamoto, a contemporary abstract artist from Kyoto. From Lily I got three pocket-sized bilingual Japanese-English zines.
- Editora Vai Vem, an independent Portuguese publisher and a first-time participant of I Never Read. From Vai Vem I purchased the “Bestiário de Arraiolos” by Teresa Carvalheira, in the original Portuguese edition.
… sold out editions.
If the love you give and the love you take find a way to balance each other out, then it’s perhaps not a surprise that as I Never Read came to an end on Saturday June 21, both “The Tea House Diary” and “One Moment, One Drawing” were sold out. “Lotus” inventory is now down to exactly five copies. Was the welcoming door framed by wild blossoms and maple leaves “foreshadowing” or a good luck charm?
Be it one or the other, it was definitely warm and inspiring.
Thank you for joining me on this recap of the 2025 summer art book fair season in Switzerland. New bookstore collaboration, a touring exhibition, original art and personal encounters packed into two weeks. Both original summer landscapes from the art book fair season are available for sale here.
See you again in the fall, and enjoy the summer ahead!
