Printed Matter is pleased to host the JAPANESE YOUNG ARTISTS BOOK FAIR, the 6th annual book fair of contemporary artists’ books put on by PEPPER’S PROJECT, a Tokyo-based gallery and art project. The fair includes a wide range of handmade books including artists’ books, comics, graphic books, photography books, poetry books, art objects and others items. The material is on view March 1 - March 13 at the Printed Matter storefront.

The JAPANESE YOUNG ARTISTS BOOK FAIR is taking place simultaneously across 4 additional bookstores throughout New York - Kinokuniya Bookstores, St. Marks Book Shop, Book Court and Desert Island.

This fair was originally planned as a traveling program and it started at the Pepper’s Gallery (Tokyo, Japan) in November 2006 as Reading IV exhibitions. The collections of the artists’ books from the exhibitions traveled then to Books Kinokuniya Shinjuku (Tokyo, Japan) in January 2007 and came to New York for the first time in March 2007. This was the first Japanese Young Artists Book Fair. In January 2008, the second version of the fair happened in a bigger space at Books Kinokuniya Shinjuku (Tokyo) and then came to NY again to present the Japanese Artists Books in March 2008. The fair continued to 2009 and 2010 both in Tokyo and New York and had the fifth anniversary year in 2011.

This year will be the sixth year of this annual Japanese Young Artists Book Fair and will present more powerful selections at the same venues in New York and Brooklyn. It represents one of the biggest and most varied assemblings of art books made by Japanese artists in New York City.

The fair is produced by PEPPER’S PROJECT, a Tokyo-based gallery and art projects. Since 1998, PEPPER’S PROJECT has organized large numbers of exhibitions to present works of young Japanese artists working in a variety of genres and media. Thus far, PEPPER’S PROJECT exhibitions have been held simultaneously in two spaces - Pepper’s Gallery and Pepper’s Loft Gallery. In the last ten years, many young artists have taken their first step toward wider recognition with an exhibition at Pepper’s. In August 2006, Pepper’s Loft Gallery closed its door and Pepper’s Gallery became the core location of the exhibition programming, while PEPPER’S PROJECT started exhibiting artists in spaces in numerous major cities, including those abroad, as a part of its extension and output programs.

See more info about “PEPPERS PROJECT”:http://www.peppers-project.com/

JAPANESE YOUNG ARTISTS BOOK is a simultaneous project with the Japanese Emerging Artists Exhibition, J_Art, which will be on view at the WILLIAMSBURG ART & HOSTORICAL CENTER (WAH Center) in Williamsburg through March 2 to March 11 . For further information for both events, please contact the Coordinator, Tomoko Ashikawa, at tomoko@waitingroom.jp

Participating Artists:

ERICCO, Fumio Tanai, Lacca,Yoko Naito, Akane Ito, zimbabwefumi, Kaori Toda, Maho Nishimura, Haruna Yasui, Satoko Shimozono, Mami shimoda, Hiromi Hashimoto, Siho Kanamitsu, Ayano Furusaka, Yuriko Katori, Anna Takagaki, yuuri mikami, Etsuyo Yamada, Mayo Yamamoto, Tomoe Shijo, kamiyakoshouya, Satoe Akimoto, Misa Shibui, Shino Matsuda, Mika Matsumoto, Nawo Tokiwa, ZOOMENDA, Ayano Shinpo, Mari Murakami, Erika Nak- agawa, hibi.to+ nakamura mafune, Tomoe Tsuchiya, Yuko, Sayaka Fukui, Boon Fukushima, Natsuko Yamoto, Yuki Ochiai, Azusa Hayashi, akh