The Deadbeat Club publishers have been crushing it lately with some amazing titles. I have a few of their books in my collection so when I went to Printed Matter’s Los Angeles Art Book Fair one of my top priorities was to find their booth, introduce myself to Clint Woodside - the founder, and see what new titles they had out.

Once I got to their booth, I was immediately drawn to Taylor Galloway’s book “I Can Feel You Dreaming” (Deadbeat Club publication #85). The book looks simple at first, but it so well printed and has a handcrafted feel to it. The images are wonderful, they allow the viewer to have their own interpretations of them, and they allow for unique experiences every time you revisit the book. The copy on display was a special edition with a small print from one of the images in the book which I loved. I like trains to begin with but the way the image is framed is absolutely perfect, I dig it. Taylor’s book gave me the opportunity to introduce myself to Clint.

Clint made a solid first impression, he knows his craft and is passionate about it. I told him how much I enjoyed owning a copy of Ave Pildas’s book Star Struck and I told him how I met Ave and Ian Bates at their book signing at Arcana Books. We started talking about Taylor’s book and how the Special Edition version was editioned to only 30 copies. Clint was showing me an artist proof and the other person in their booth said that AP copy was all they had left, that the edition had sold out. I guess I made a good impression on Clint because when I said I would still buy an AP copy because I liked it that much, he turned around and pulled out #30 of 30 which he had apparently set aside. I like to think Clint wanted to find a good home for the last copy of the special edition. If that’s the case, I am thankful I struck up that conversation. I am still pumped up about adding this book to my collection.

I have had a number of conversations with publishers over the last few years, Clint definitely stands out. I know I will be adding more of Deadbeat’s titles to my collection over time and I understand why Ave decided to publish one of his most important books with Clint.

The Archival Pigment Print included with the Limited Edition book.

I was able to make it out to Printed Matter's 2023 LA Art Book Fair on August 13th at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA which did not disappoint. This was the first LAABF since 2019, which was fantastic, so I wanted to get up there for it. Ticket demand was high, so I ended up going up on Sunday during the masked-up visitor time which actually worked out great because there were less people there and I was even able to find a parking spot after driving around for half an hour.

The organizers did a fantastic job bringing the fair back to life after the pandemic. I saw lots of great material, things that were innovative ways for sharing art, and lot of well-crafted print on demand or self-produced works. I saw work I thought was amazing and had strong artistic value and there were things that saw which I thought were weak. A lot of the sexually explicit works seemed to fail as art in my opinion. Solid erotica for some folks I guess, I just didn’t see much more value in a lot of it. One of the most beautiful aspects of art is every visitor brings their own background to the viewing experience so everyone’s take on something can be different. I will also say that most all the booths were professional and tasteful about the display of their work so most people could enjoy LAABF without being offended.

The organizers remembered their past layouts in this epic facility and once again it was outstanding how the exhibit was set up. Photo books in their own area, and the traffic flow throughout the show worked well. I roamed around the entire exhibit a couple of times.

Below is a gallery of images from my visit, I am also authoring a couple other blog post about two books I bought there and my visit with Clint Woodside founder of Deadbeat Club publishing. If you are in Los Angeles, the next time LAABF is up you need to check it out.

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