Micro-interview with Maia Asshaq of DittoDitto @ Knight Arts Blog
From Oct. 17-18, independent bookseller and Knight Arts Challenge winner DittoDitto hosted the third annual Detroit Art Book Fair. The event was held at Trinosophes, a fellow Knight Arts Challenge winner, where dialogue was certainly flowing as art enthusiasts and bibliophiles gathered in droves for creative and fiscal exchanges with a range of booksellers.
Many of the vendors are Detroit-area presses and publishers, including What Pipeline (also recipients of a Knight Arts grant), Around Poetry, and the Detroit Center for Contemporary Photography. But an impressive number of vendors were visiting from further afield: Colour Code and Alicia’s Klassic Kool Shoppe both came from Toronto to be at the fair; Spaces Corners made the trip from Pittsburgh; Nomadic Bookshelf roamed over from Cleveland; and Publication Studio was visiting from Portland, Ore.—in addition to a number of greater Michigan shops, like Rusty Nail Studio from Ann Arbor and Issue Press from Grand Rapids. Letterpress artists were also showing their stuff, including the Eastern Market-based Salt + Cedar and artist Laura Beyer, who produces exquisite original book and print works out of her letterpress studio in Birmingham.
I caught a word with co-organizer and DittoDitto founder Maia Asshaq about the fair, and the inspiration for DittoDitto.