The Grey Guide to Artist-Run Publishing and Circulation is the most cutting edge guide on art publishing in Canada, and an essential resource for artists.

Produced by Artist-Run Centres and Collectives Conference (ARCA) in collaboration with le Regroupement des centres d’artistes autogérés du Québec (RCAAQ). Composed of a series of seven essays written and developed by artist, critic, cultural worker and art librarian Felicity Tayler, this publication is now available in print. The essays were first made available online, as a bi-weekly e-campaign, from March 1st to June 21st, 2017. The print version can also be purchased at launches taking place in 2017-2018 in Edmonton at SNAP (Sept. 21, 2017), Montréal, Québec, Toronto, Winnipeg, Calgary, Saskatoon, Regina (dates and locations to confirm) and at The Vancouver Art Book Fair October 13-15.

The Grey Guide seeks to trigger high-level debate about the role of publishing in artist-run culture. Combining theory with practice, the Grey Guide also offers practical guidance in this complex field, so that a new generation of artists and cultural workers who wish to professionalize may do so, while others may opt to remain resolutely DIY if they so please. Either way, somewhere on the continuum between adopting an entrepreneurial strategy and advocating for sustained public funding, this guide offers insight into the advantages and disadvantages inherent to a diversity of approaches.

About the author

Felicity Tayler is an FAS Post Doctoral Fellow in the History of Art at the University of Toronto. Her SSHRC-funded PhD research at Concordia University focused on counter-national narratives in conceptual bookworks and artists’ magazines from the early 1970s. She also holds an MLIS from McGill University and has experience as an art librarian. In each of these roles she is concerned with media and cultural infrastructure as the material substrates for social imaginaries. Both her artistic practice and curatorial work has been supported by the Canada Council for the Arts and the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec. She has written reviews for C Magazine and Ciel Variable, and her scholarly writing is featured in the Journal of Canadian Art History, International Journal on Digital Libraries, Art Documentation and Art Libraries Journal. www.atthetime.ca