Printed Matter to close its St Marks location

PRINTED MATTER PRESS RELEASE: 

"An innovative, six-year collaboration with Swiss Institute comes to an end in mid-October

August 28 - October 14, 2024

We are saddened to announce the closing of Printed Matter / St Marks, our East Village bookstore that has operated at the corner of St Marks Place and 2nd Avenue over the last six years. The last day the storefront will be open to the public is October 13, 2024.  

The bookstore came into existence as the result of a rare and wonderful collaboration with Swiss Institute, and we thank them for their incredible hospitality and partnership that made the storefront possible. 

Printed Matter / St Marks has been a remarkable site for experimentation, nurtured by the vibrant community of independent arts institutions and fellow bookstores in the East Village. 

We are grateful to the many Printed Matter staff members who have contributed so much energy and talent to all that the space undertook, and who made the location a special place for discovering artists’ books and zines. We are additionally indebted to the generosity of Swiss Institute and its employees for their collaboration and support. 

Printed Matter / St Marks opened in July 2018, under the guidance of former Printed Matter Director Max Schumann and former Swiss Institute Director, Simon Castets, and has been carried forward with the support of current Swiss Institute Director Stefanie Hessler. The bookstore maintains a specialty focus on the East Village neighborhood and its history as a home for avant garde art and countercultural publications in Lower Manhattan, offering a curated selection of independently published books by artists, zines, rare, and historical material, as well as artist-made multiples, prints, and posters.

From this location, Printed Matter / St Marks has presented a robust calendar of programs, events, and workshops, including four editions of the East Village Zine Fair, a joyous and wildly successful outdoor zine fair organized in collaboration with 8-Ball Community. Other highlights, among many, include a 2020 open call for mail art submissions and the resulting exhibition We Live in Real Time: A Window Exhibition of Mail Art Made During the Pandemic as well as the 2022 Riso Holiday Market, held at dieFirma in Cooper Square in coordination with the exhibition Printing the Future: The Riso Revolution.

We are sorry to say goodbye to our home in the East Village but look forward to continuing our work on behalf of artists’ books through our store in Chelsea, and its many programs and services. 

Note: Printed Matter / St Marks hours have changed through September 6 to accommodate the installation schedule at Swiss Institute. We will be closed weekdays through September 10, and will resume regular hours on Wednesday, September 11, coinciding with the opening of Swiss Institute’s exhibition Energies, an international group exhibition that unfolds throughout the entire building at 38 St Marks Pl and expands into numerous partner locations in the surrounding East Village community. Stay tuned for future announcements, events, and special sales taking place at Printed Matter / St Marks in the weeks ahead."