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DIRIYAH: Rows of art books, a DJ spinning records and an endless sea of colorful posters can mean only one thing — the second annual Paperback Art Book Fair is back at JAX District in Diriyah, running for three days and ending this Saturday.

Organized by the Diriyah Biennale Foundation, the now-annual event has become a fixture in its cultural calendar and will continue to take place during the first week of November each year.

“Paperback happens at JAX — a very creative district that houses multiple creative tenants across the board, from artists to creative organizations, businesses, you name it,” Sybel Vazquez, director of public programs at the Biennale, told Arab News.

“Paperback is happening between the two biennales,” she said, referring to the Islamic Arts and Contemporary Art Biennales, which now open in January each year over the past half decade.

“We have a lot of contemporary artists who are self-published or work with books as a medium — there’s at least one artist that is in the biennale that actually also has a booth at Paperback.”

Vazquez added that the fair is designed to encourage curiosity and creative experimentation.

“Paperback is also to nurture print culture. It is really a celebration of creative publishing,” she said.

“The reason why Paperback exists is because we want to create a gathering for print culture … Paperback is intended to spark conversation, exchange and learning for what is still very nascent locally.”

When the first event debuted last year, the response far exceeded expectations.

“We had no idea if there would be a demand for art books,” she confessed — but her worries were unjustified.

“People came by the thousands. We ran out of books very quickly — too quickly,” Vazquez said. “It’s a good problem to have but nonetheless a problem because people kept coming in. There was nothing left.”

This year’s lineup features 30 publishers selected after extensive research by the Biennale team.

Three Saudi participants: Rawdah Print, Bin Atiah Studio and Misk Art Institute join international exhibitors from places such as Spain, Italy, Japan, the US, Egypt, Greece, China and Malaysia, among other countries.

Two new book launches headline the event: “Raw, Print, Scripted Spaces” by Jeddah-based architecture and design studio Bricklab, co-founded by brothers Abdulrahman and Turki Gazzaz, and “Dwelling Futures: Future of Gulf Housing” by the UAE-based Sawalif Collective.

Workshops during the three-day program include “Making Zines for Kids” and “Bookmaking: Pamphlets, Concertinas, Japanese Binding,” both by Saudi-based Creative Girls Club, as well as sessions led by other publishers.

Among the returning participants is “Reliable Copy,” a publishing house and curatorial practice founded in Bangalore, India, in 2018. 

Sarasija Subramanian of “Reliable Copy” told Arab News that the atmosphere at Paperback stood out from larger fairs abroad.

“Last year was amazing,” she said. “This is very different from the other fairs that we’ve done because usually we do fairs in Europe and the USA, which are exponentially larger — like 200 publishers instead of 30. It’s a lot more warm and friendly because it’s smaller and easier to access.”

She added that the more intimate setting allows readers to interact one-on-one with publishers.

“Everything (for sale at their booth) is an artist’s book — everything is either by an artist or with an artist. But what the individual books are is a very wide range; there’s a cookbook, a bunch of photo books, some science fiction.”

“I think the general audience response is really, really great. Even last time, most of the publishers sold out— that’s not something you often experience,” she added.  

Also returning is Shashasha, an online bookshop based in Tokyo that specializes in photobooks and artbooks. They came armed with just under 100 books last year and sold-out quickly, so they doubled their offerings this time around.

A Japanese graduate student — who had a badge adorned with the name-tag Keishin — told Arab News about his sophomore participation.

“Since last year, Shashasha has been invited to this event, and I was the only one studying Islam, so I was entrusted with this. I’m at an age where anything I experience is useful, so I’m enjoying it,” he said.

For Vazquez and the Biennale Foundation, the goal remains simple; to make books accessible, tactile and a catalyst for community.

“Print is not dead — print is back on Nov. 6-8!” she said.