Fair Game

As a Watson librarian, I’m most frequently asked where we buy our special collections material, and the answer is typically book fairs. Here we will take a look at one of the largest annual art book fairs in New York City, The New York International Antiquarian Book Fair (NYIABF), and highlight a few of our recent acquisitions from this event.

The New York International Antiquarian Book Fair

From April 3–6, 2025, the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America held the sixty-fifth iteration of its annual book fair at the Park Avenue Armory. The fair is a bibliophile’s dream, filled with rare books, maps, illuminated manuscripts, fine bindings, illustrations, historical documents, photographs, prints, memorabilia, and ephemera. Watson’s librarians attend every year in search of hidden gems to add to our collection.

Over one hundred rare book dealers from all over the world congregate at NYIABF to showcase their bibliographic treasures to a menagerie of collectors and enthusiasts.I highly recommend that all book lovers attend the fair, even if only to spend an afternoon browsing.

Highlights from Watson Library’s NYIABF acquisitions

Bauer Beton typeface

First, we acquired a catalog for the Bauer Beton typeface designed by Heinrich Jost (1889–1948), purchased from the dealer Pierre Coumans. The catalog presents the typeface in different weights and includes fold-out page examples of its use in advertisements and newspaper articles. According to the catalog’s preface, “the Bauer Beton is the true interpretation of the spirit of our technical age. It shows the same abstract qualities as modern architecture, automobiles and aeroplanes.” This publication adds to the library’s expansive collection of trade catalogues, and we encourage designers everywhere to visit the library and consult these valuable reference materials, including more type specimens.

Art Nouveau and Maurice Pillard Verneuil

We also purchased a portfolio of decorative designs by Maurice Pillard Verneuil (1869–1942), purchased from David Bergman. Verneuil was a French decorative artist associated with the Art Nouveau movement. This portfolio contains thirty-two sheets of ornamental motifs, illustrated using the pochoir technique, a printing method that involves stenciling by hand. It is one of many striking examples of pochoir that can be found at Watson Library.

Black artist directories

We also acquired a trio of rare Black artist directories from the 1970s and 1980s from Crow Hop Books. The 1973 Afro-American Resource Directory: Visual Arts was published in conjunction with an African American artists conference in Boston called “Flashback” and was sponsored by the National Center of Afro-American Artists.

Directory of Black Artists and Arts Resources, published in 1979, is a directory of Seattle-based artists and was funded by the Seattle Arts Commission and the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act. Jacob Lawrence, Colleen McElroy, and Floyd Standifer are a few of the prominent artists listed in this directory.

Finally, the 1988 Directory of African American Prints, Posters, and Craft Dealers is a photomechanically reproduced directory advertising African American businesses and craftspeople throughout the United States.

These three directories provide a glimpse into the African American artistic scenes of the 1970s and ’80s, as well as insight into how artists and craftspeople might have advertised themselves and conducted their businesses.

Centro de Arte y Comunicación

The Centro de Arte y Comunicación (CAyC) was an arts organization based in Buenos Aires devoted to the promotion and practice of “Arte de Sistemas” or “Systems Art,” a school of conceptual art from the late 1960s and early 1970s that sought to create art that was responsive to the world around it. The CAyC played a key role in introducing Argentinian art to an international audience. The newsletter was a cornerstone of their artistic practice, encouraging reciprocal communication between the editors and readership. Watson Library has been collecting issues of the newsletter over the years and hopes to develop a comprehensive collection of this important example of authentic mail art.

The newsletter has also been digitized as part of the ongoing CAyC Files Project, co-initiated by the International Center for the Arts of the Americas (ICAA) at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA), New York.

These are just a few of the treasures we found at this year’s fair. For a closer look, register to use Watson Library.