Last Thursdays’ opening reception for this years’ Los Angeles Art Book Fair was an interconnected web of the art publishing community. Each corner turned presented a new cache of friends and colleagues. With 100 newcomers (from an impressive total of 390 contributors) the fair felt expansive and yet tight-knit, an accomplishment this fair has been renowned for. MOCA director, Klaus Biesenbach stands by, in conversation with Frieze Los Angeles Executive Director Bettina Korek, who has just acquired a Paul McCarthy artist book, recently signed by McCarthy at the Hauser & Wirth booth. A smiling Alex Israel, complete with iconic sunglasses, stands from his book signing to join the conversation.

Alex Israel, Bettina Korek, Klaus Biesenbach.

Alex Israel.

Nearby, Los Angeles based OOF Books spearheaded by founder Christie Hayden, presents a spread of innovative and “super friggin’ rare” (as one sign reads) publications. Since opening shop July 2017, this is their first time participating in LAABF. Elsewhere, The Pit shows off various artist editions. I chat with gallery associate, Ethan Tate (also co-founder of young gallery In Lieu) and it seems the opening has been “busy,” to say the least.

Christie Hayden, OOF Books.

Ethan Tate, Adam D. Miller, Devon Oder.

Ted Gerike, of new DIY cinema space and curated bookstore, Now-Instant, is there doing buying. Gerike found himself returning to the fair each day of the weekend, to attend various programming. This is unsurprising considering the over 100 free conversations, workshops, performances, and other artist-led programs throughout the weekend. One of which was a poetry reading by artist Kayla Ephros (who has curated a screening at Gerike’s Now-Instant and presented a solo exhibition at Tate’s In Lieu) at the booth of “desk-top exhibition space” From the Desk of Lucy Bull. Bull’s curated exhibition space, which is literally a desk at her East Hollywood home, continues a legacy of innovative DIY spaces and her presence at the book fair a testament that experiment and the avant-garde is alive and well in LA, despite attention to growing costs and, as a result, commercialization.

Kayla Ephros, Lucy Bull.

I left the book fair, feeling warmed by, despite the impressive growth and attendance (over 15,000 during the weekend), the interconnectedness of the arts community and the support so often visible in this city. Los Angeles’ embrace of DIY remarks on the beauty here and perhaps speaks to why this fair has and continues to be popular with so many international vendors.