ARCHIVE
2025 Object//Project
Art Book Fair
March 28-29, 2025
Carleton Dominion-Chalmers Centre
To mark its 10-year anniversary, Possible Worlds presented the inaugural edition of OPABF spotlighted the vibrant Canadian art publishing scene. Fair visitors had the opportunity to discover the work of some of the most exciting artists and publishers in Canada, including:
- 50+ exhibitors in multiple rooms, from Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal and beyond;
- A dynamic lineup of talks, workshops and artists’ projects focused on the theme of cultural memory and documentation;
- Electronic and experimental music performances and DJ sets across two floors; and
- Offsite programming with partners across the Ottawa-Gatineau region.
Exhibitors
Alicia's Klassic Kool Shoppe (Toronto, ON)
Amy Vaillancourt (Wakefield, QC)
Art Metropole (Toronto, ON)
Bird Lips Zine (Ottawa, ON)
Bookburner Press (Ottawa, ON)
CBBAG (Ottawa, ON)
Chaos Collective (Ottawa, ON)
Colour Code (Toronto, ON)
Copy Shop Books (Lunenburg, NS)
Émilie KLEMM (Ottawa, ON)
Emily Neufeld (Ottawa, ON)
Esse arts + opinions (Montréal, QC)
Ethel Milford (Montréal, QC)
Feels (Toronto, ON)
Gabi Benitez (Gatineau, QC)
Gart Darley (Toronto, ON)
Gia-Waihan (Toronto, ON)
Good Golly Zines (Ottawa, ON)
habi habi po (Toronto, ON)
James Hewitt (Ottawa, ON)
Jessica Bebenek Studio (Montréal, QC)
Keenan Poloncsak (Montréal, QC)
L'abricot (Montréal, QC)
Late Bloomer Press(Ottawa, ON)
Laughing Radish (Ottawa, ON)
Lilith’s Eye (Montréal, QC)
Amy Vaillancourt (Wakefield, QC)
Art Metropole (Toronto, ON)
Bird Lips Zine (Ottawa, ON)
Bookburner Press (Ottawa, ON)
CBBAG (Ottawa, ON)
Chaos Collective (Ottawa, ON)
Colour Code (Toronto, ON)
Copy Shop Books (Lunenburg, NS)
Émilie KLEMM (Ottawa, ON)
Emily Neufeld (Ottawa, ON)
Esse arts + opinions (Montréal, QC)
Ethel Milford (Montréal, QC)
Feels (Toronto, ON)
Gabi Benitez (Gatineau, QC)
Gart Darley (Toronto, ON)
Gia-Waihan (Toronto, ON)
Good Golly Zines (Ottawa, ON)
habi habi po (Toronto, ON)
James Hewitt (Ottawa, ON)
Jessica Bebenek Studio (Montréal, QC)
Keenan Poloncsak (Montréal, QC)
L'abricot (Montréal, QC)
Late Bloomer Press(Ottawa, ON)
Laughing Radish (Ottawa, ON)
Lilith’s Eye (Montréal, QC)
Mille Putois (Dunham, QC)
Mitch Lohmeier (Toronto, ON)
Noeuds Éditions (Montréal, QC)
Noka Palm Trees (Montréal, QC)
Nosy Mag(Ottawa, ON)
Nothing New(Ottawa, ON)
O Underworld! Press (Havelock, ON)
O. Dennis(Ottawa, ON)
Ottawa Trans Library
PATINAPATINA (Toronto, ON)
Phantomtits (Ottawa , ON)
Philip Rose (Ottawa, ON)
photoED magazine (Toronto, ON)
Possible Worlds(Ottawa, ON)
Reflex Editions (Toronto, ON)
Reid Urchison (Montréal, QC)
roylu (Gatineau, QC)
Sebastien Sunstrum (Montréal, QC)
Shop Cold Pizza(Ottawa, ON)
SPAO: Photographic Arts Centre (Ottawa, ON)
Susan Mills Artist Books (Saskatoon, SK)
Tales from Behind the Counter (Ottawa, ON)
TEL # (Montréal, QC)
Wardah Malik (Toronto, ON)
Wyrdsmyth Press(Ottawa, ON)
Mitch Lohmeier (Toronto, ON)
Noeuds Éditions (Montréal, QC)
Noka Palm Trees (Montréal, QC)
Nosy Mag(Ottawa, ON)
Nothing New(Ottawa, ON)
O Underworld! Press (Havelock, ON)
O. Dennis(Ottawa, ON)
Ottawa Trans Library
PATINAPATINA (Toronto, ON)
Phantomtits (Ottawa , ON)
Philip Rose (Ottawa, ON)
photoED magazine (Toronto, ON)
Possible Worlds(Ottawa, ON)
Reflex Editions (Toronto, ON)
Reid Urchison (Montréal, QC)
roylu (Gatineau, QC)
Sebastien Sunstrum (Montréal, QC)
Shop Cold Pizza(Ottawa, ON)
SPAO: Photographic Arts Centre (Ottawa, ON)
Susan Mills Artist Books (Saskatoon, SK)
Tales from Behind the Counter (Ottawa, ON)
TEL # (Montréal, QC)
Wardah Malik (Toronto, ON)
Wyrdsmyth Press(Ottawa, ON)
Programming
March 28, 2025
6-10 PM // Parlour
Music Performances
6:30 PM textcurious
7:15 PM AnumaLei
8:00 PM Transmit
8:45 PM Daggers Every Breath
9:15 PM Dimitri Georgaras
March 29, 2025
12:15-12:25 PM
Welcome and Land Acknowledgement
Carmel Whittle, No Borders Art Festival
Carmel Whittle, No Borders Art Festival
Indigenous artist and founder of No Borders Art Festival, Carmel Whittle, will offer a land acknowledgement to welcome attendees and artists to the inaugural Object//Project Art Book Fair.
12:30-1 PM
//Talk//
Echoes from this Land: Visioning and Revisiting Truth & Reconciliation
Carmel Whittle, No Borders Art Festival
Echoes from this Land: Visioning and Revisiting Truth & Reconciliation
Carmel Whittle, No Borders Art Festival
Join Carmel Whittle for a talk on the project Echoes from This Land: Visioning and Revisiting the Truth & Reconciliation 94 Recommendations.
Artists and creators from Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities of different backgrounds, ages, genders, ethnicities, abilities, incomes, nationhood, and nationality came together to openly discuss and better understand the findings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission report and the 94 Calls to Action. They were then encouraged to share their understandings of their chosen Call through their own lenses and lived experiences, and to visually interpret the Call in the form of print editions. Carmel will speak to how the project was conceived, project collaborators from across the country, and hopes for the project. An exhibition featuring some of these prints from creators across Canada will be on display at OPABF.
echoesfromthisland.ca
echoesfromthisland.ca
1:15-2:15 PM
//Workshop//
Memory Workers Lab: Preserving Your Personal and Community History
Ben Compton, Everyone Archives
Memory Workers Lab: Preserving Your Personal and Community History
Ben Compton, Everyone Archives
This workshop will dive into the practice of documenting, archiving, and sharing the stories that you hold closest. What does it mean to preserve history? What tools can help you store and organize your precious photos, journals, and objects for safekeeping? What are some first steps when taking on an archiving project? Participants are encouraged to bring items from their personal collections and connect around the shared experience of doing 'memory work'.
2:30-2:50 PM
//Talk//
Community and Preserving Textile Practices Through Zines
Maria Patricia Abuel, habihabi po
Maria Patricia Abuel of Toronto-based Filipino/a/x artist collective habihabipo will discuss the making of their zine maghabi magkatabi (meaning “weave side by side” in Tagalog), a research-creation project with the purpose of co-creating and sharing historical material and embodied knowledge about sustainable Philippine textile and weaving practices.
Community and Preserving Textile Practices Through Zines
Maria Patricia Abuel, habihabi po
Maria Patricia Abuel of Toronto-based Filipino/a/x artist collective habihabipo will discuss the making of their zine maghabi magkatabi (meaning “weave side by side” in Tagalog), a research-creation project with the purpose of co-creating and sharing historical material and embodied knowledge about sustainable Philippine textile and weaving practices.
3-3:40 PM
//Talk//
Sustaining A Risograph Small Press in Canada
Jesjit Gill and Jenny Gitman, Colour Code
Sustaining A Risograph Small Press in Canada
Jesjit Gill and Jenny Gitman, Colour Code
Colour Code will explore the precarity of being an artist-printer and trace the evolution of Risograph printing in art and comics since the 2010s. They’ll also discuss the importance of a Canada-wide Risograph community and other resources for anyone interested in starting a Risograph-based small press.
3:50-4:40 PM
//Panel//
Libraries as Sites of Resistance and Creation
Facilitator: Cara Tierney
Panelists:
Libraries as Sites of Resistance and Creation
Facilitator: Cara Tierney
Panelists:
- Alice Holland, Ottawa Trans Library
- Alicia Nauta
This panel explores the relationship between libraries, books, access and expression. How can libraries expand personal and collective narratives towards liberation and creation? How can libraries function as safe spaces for intellectual freedom? Ottawa Trans Library will discuss how libraries may be used as safe spaces for collective organizing and the preservation of counternarratives, particularly for marginalized individuals. Artist-publisher Alicia Nauta will discuss how in her individual practice, libraries act as sites of knowledge and artistic creation, in ways that push the boundaries of traditional research-creation processes.
4:50-5:40 PM
//Panel//
From Counternarratives to Collections: Making Artists’ Publications Public in Canada
Facilitator: Jason St-Laurent, SAW
Panelists:
From Counternarratives to Collections: Making Artists’ Publications Public in Canada
Facilitator: Jason St-Laurent, SAW
Panelists:
- Tess Davey, Art Metropole
- Louis Rastelli, ARCMTL
What is the role of Canadian arts organizations in championing artists’ publications to the public? Join Tess Davey from Art Metropole and Louis Rastelli from ARCMTL in a discussion about their efforts towards the recognition and celebration of Canadian artists’ books, zines and multiples in the public realm. From creating platforms to promote and preserve local independent culture, to building new audiences and communities, to developing partnerships with provincial and federal cultural institutions to grow institutional collections, panelists will discuss these various initiatives, their current organizational projects, and what might be next.
Exhibitor Projects
12-6 PM Parlour
//Exhibition//Echoes from this Land
Artists and creators from Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities of different backgrounds, ages, genders, ethnicities, abilities, incomes, nationhood, and nationality came together to openly discuss and better understand the findings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission report and the 94 Calls to Action. They were then encouraged to share their understandings of their chosen Call through their own lenses and lived experiences, and to visually interpret the Call in the form of print editions, such as linocuts, woodcuts, stone and plate lithography, etching, photo-etching, 3D printing, collagraph, screen printing, digital media, performance, or hand/digitally altered art creation and production.
echoesfromthisland.ca
echoesfromthisland.ca
1-4 PM Parlour
//Drop-In Workshop//
Make Your Own Zines
In collaboration with
Make Your Own Zines
In collaboration with
- Tales
from Behind the Counter
- Ottawa Trans Library
Join local zinesters Becca Yates and Kiran Niet, alongside team members from the Ottawa Trans Library for some casual zinemaking at OPABF. Drop by the zinemaking table at any time. Creative prompts will be provided. No experience necessary, all materials provided.
1-4 PM Parlour
//Performance//
die psychokinetische perfopopart therapie
roylu
die psychokinetische perfopopart therapie
roylu
die psychokinetische perfopopart therapie is a book; a workbook, to be exact, to be used with a participative performance art project of the same title. The participative action is between two
persons, details of which are initiated and mediated by the workbook, whose content facilitates
the same. While the book and the interaction it encourages uses the word ‘therapie’, the workexplicit disavows any claim to having any therapeutic outcomes accepted as such by the canadian
psychokinetische perfopopart-therapie association.
7-11 PM
Ten Toes Coffee House & Laundry
837 Somerset Street West
Ten Toes Coffee House & Laundry
837 Somerset Street West
Offsite Programming
Exhibition: Archives by Artists
March 12-April 12, 2025
galerie UQO
Pavillon Lucien-Brault
101, rue Saint-Jean-Bosco Entrée portes 6 & 17 Local A-0115
galerie UQO
Pavillon Lucien-Brault
101, rue Saint-Jean-Bosco Entrée portes 6 & 17 Local A-0115
Zine Club with Possible Worlds
In collaboration with Ottawa Public Library
March 20, 2025
6-8 PM
6-8 PM
Ottawa Public Library, Rosemount Branch
18 Rosemount Avenue
18 Rosemount Avenue
//Tour// In collaboration with Art Metropole
Art Metropole Collection
With Dominique Taylor, Head of Reference Services, Library, Archives and Research Fellowships Program
Art Metropole Collection
With Dominique Taylor, Head of Reference Services, Library, Archives and Research Fellowships Program
March 28, 2025
10 AM start
10 AM start
National Gallery of Canada
380 Sussex Drive
380 Sussex Drive
/Tour// Conservation Labs Tour
Prints, Drawings & Photography
With Ainsley Walton, Senior Conservator
Prints, Drawings & Photography
With Ainsley Walton, Senior Conservator
March 28, 2025
1 PM start
2 PM start
1 PM start
2 PM start
National Gallery of Canada
380 Sussex Drive
380 Sussex Drive
March 30, 2025
1-5 PM
Arts Court
2 Daly Avenue
//Exhibition Tour//
Bucko Art Machine, SAW Gallery, 1-2 PM
With Jason St-Laurent, Curator
//Exhibition Tour//
Grotto, Ottawa Art Gallery, 2-3 PM
Bucko Art Machine, SAW Gallery, 1-2 PM
With Jason St-Laurent, Curator
//Exhibition Tour//
Grotto, Ottawa Art Gallery, 2-3 PM
//Studio Visit//
Possible Worlds, 2-5 PM
With Melanie Yugo and Jason Pelletier, Co-Directors
Possible Worlds, 2-5 PM
With Melanie Yugo and Jason Pelletier, Co-Directors
2025 Team
Fair Directors
Melanie Yugo and Jason Pelletier
Team Leads (Day of Fair)
Alex Brovkin, Jason Dai, Simone (Coco) Finken, Joe Gibson-King, Matt Pygott
Special thanks to to Mara Brown and the entire dedicated staff at Carleton Dominion-Chalmers Centre, Kelly Sirett and staff at the Ottawa Public Library-Rosemount Branch, Ainsley Walton and Dominique Taylor at the National Gallery of Canada, Blair Swann and Tess Davey at Art Metropole, Ottawa Art Gallery staff, Jason St-Laurent of SAW, Kiran Niet and Becca Yates of tbczines, Alice Holland and the Ottawa Trans Library, Louis Rastelli of ARCMTL, Andrew Hill of the Halifax Art Book Fair, and artists James Hewitt and Alexandra Finkeldey for their generous contributions to the fair.
Melanie Yugo and Jason Pelletier
Team Leads (Day of Fair)
Alex Brovkin, Jason Dai, Simone (Coco) Finken, Joe Gibson-King, Matt Pygott
Special thanks to to Mara Brown and the entire dedicated staff at Carleton Dominion-Chalmers Centre, Kelly Sirett and staff at the Ottawa Public Library-Rosemount Branch, Ainsley Walton and Dominique Taylor at the National Gallery of Canada, Blair Swann and Tess Davey at Art Metropole, Ottawa Art Gallery staff, Jason St-Laurent of SAW, Kiran Niet and Becca Yates of tbczines, Alice Holland and the Ottawa Trans Library, Louis Rastelli of ARCMTL, Andrew Hill of the Halifax Art Book Fair, and artists James Hewitt and Alexandra Finkeldey for their generous contributions to the fair.