Bigger Than Ever, the SF Art Book Fair Returns With Zines and Small Presses Galore

You don’t realize just how massive the Bay Area’s small-press and zine world is until you walk into the San Francisco Art Book Fair.

Inside, it’s shoulder-to-shoulder crowds. A steady din of excited conversation. And tables full of fascinating, eye-catching DIY publications as far as the eyes can see.

It’s a scene that immediately captivated Ocean Escalanti when the festival launched in 2016. After working to assist other vendors at the fair, or tabling for her day job at Richmond’s NIAD Art Center, the Oakland-based zinemaker began applying to be an exhibitor herself. This year, despite the fair receiving more than 400 applications for around 130 tables, she got in.

In a way, Escalanti says, exhibiting at the SFABF is a rite of passage, and “a way to get acceptance, and own the fact that I’m an artist creating in the Bay Area.”

Escalanti’s zines provide a cross-section of the fair’s variety: she’ll have chapbook-sized tributes to David Bowie and Jerry Garcia alongside zines that reference ancient drawings. Her skill-share brochures on color symbolism and natural dyes are informed by her Indigenous Quechan background, and her desire to foster a personal relationship with the Bay Area’s land and its Native people after moving here from San Diego more than 10 years ago.

On Friday, July 11, 1–2 p.m., Escalanti leads a discussion on the importance of small publishers working in the realms of ecology, homesteading and the natural world — one of 19 breakout events throughout the weekend.

In fact, after eight years, the SF Art Book Fair has expanded beyond its original mission as a showcase for art books. In addition to book signings with decidedly non–small press publishers like Chronicle Books, the weekend’s activities include photo exhibitions, a record swap sponsored by KUSF, a reading room dedicated to Charles and Ray Eames and a screening room of short films curated by SF Cinematique. There’s even a celebrity dog.

But books and zines are still the star attraction — so much so that, in the case of Ben Kinmont and his “street activation” about the 1960s group The Diggers, they’ll even be printed and given away on-site. When I attended the fair last year, I struggled to whittle my highlights down to just eight cool books and zines on offer — although I discovered most of them in the out-of-the-way second building up the street at 1150 25th St., where more DIY and grassroots artists like Escalanti can be found.

My advice? Go in completely blind, work your way around the buildings, and enjoy navigating the maze of personal, niche, funny and I-didn’t-know-I-needed-this publications from the Bay Area and beyond.

The ninth annual San Francisco Art Book Fair is free to attend and runs Friday–Saturday, July 11–13 — with an opening night on Thursday, July 10, 6–10 p.m. — at the Minnesota Street Project (1150 25th St., 1275 Minnesota St., 1240 Minnesota St. and 1201 Minnesota St., San Francisco).