Tokyo Art Book Fair: Oliver Watson

The Chinese invented woodblock printing around 220AD; the first periodical Kaiyuan Za Bao publishes in 713AD, then offset printing is invented in 1903 and high circulation magaZines flourish for nearly a century. World’s first fan-Zine, dedicated to Science- Fiction is published sometime in the 1930‘s. The photocopier is invented by Xerox in 1949, counter-cultural Zine’s flourish. The internet exponentially expands during the late 90s, magaZines fold,
newspapers fold, the hegemony of print is broken and taken up by hordes of independent publishers. DIY Artists’ books and regional book fairs flourish during the 00s and now it’s 2010 and I’m sitting in a donut shop in west Tokyo talking to Oliver Watson. The second Tokyo Art Book Fair – co-founded by Oliver – will take place over the next few days. The fair features a curated selection of contemporary independent art book publishers from around the world, and over 60 booths run by Japanese galleries and micro publishers. I talked with Oliver, the UK native, Tokyo based editor of art journal ‘Paperback’, about Asia’s most prominent Art Book Fair, and the future of the 00s most exciting form of publishing - the Art Zine.

Dazed Digital: How reliant is this new area of publishing on what Charlotte Cheetham (who runs the influential manystuff.org blog) has called “paper supports.”  Can this new wave of independent artists’ books survive a
future unsupported by paper?
Oliver Watson: They can’t survive a future unsupported by people. If this area of publishing is going to survive and flourish, then its audience needs to expand. That was one of the main reasons for us to organize the fair. Hiroshi Eguchi [co-founder of the fair] specializes in all that stuff at his shop Now Idea, but the general public, the book buying audience, needed to be educated to a certain extent. While the internet is a very good outlet for content, local outlets like the Tokyo Art Book Fair are important too.

DD: How will this year be different?
Oliver Watson: This year we have mixed up the established publishers with the independent publishers. They both have different agendas, for some publishing is a business, but for self publishing artist’s or editor’s...well, you’re just not going to make any significant money from self publishing art Zines.

DD: So where is the value - what do you actually earn publishing small artists’ book?
Oliver Watson: When you create your own platform the parameters are your own, you make a space where you can be yourself, visually and materially. Things like ‘Twitter’ or ‘Wordpress’ – most template based websites – all have fixed styles where the parameters are quite regulated. You can't create just anything you like online unless you are a super web designer or programmer. Its easier with paper, and faster. The problem with art Zines as a media is that they are throwaway. I want to see them legitimized further, and moved beyond a trend.

DD: What publications do you value personally?
Oliver Watson: I like Relax, the Japanese art and culture magaZine from the 90s. Basically Relax did something really shocking to me as a reader of western magaZines - they just chose to have page after page of photography and artwork without justification. The first time I looked at relax, it’s first 16 pages were just paintings. That dedication to visuals was inspiring.

DD: Do you think there are some qualities that separate Japanese and Western publications?
Oliver Watson: There is a artfulness here in Japan, a sense of refinement. Art and production and craft are established here in a way that isn't elsewhere.

DD: Japan also seems overwhelming visually oriented, do you think that comes across at a fair like yours?
Oliver Watson: I do, perhaps it has something to do with the way Western art often came into Japan via books. Foreign imports would be hard to read, so essentially they are rendered as purely visual, devoid of textual analysis: without literary content. These books would function on purely visually level.

DD: In the same way as pre-colombian books, just visual, a lexicon through pictographs. But then, aren’t these small artists’ books at risk of being reduced to style and coming out as culturally meaningless?
Oliver Watson: Yes, indeed that is a risk. That is happening with the kind of books we have been talking about, and it floods the culture with mediocre work, however it also has the effect of waking-up the brighter individuals involved and forcing them to reinvent and push in new directions. It's a regenerative process.