The second annual L.A. Art Book Fair is this weekend

The second annual L.A. Art Book Fair held its opening reception on Thursday night at the Chinatown boutique Ooga Booga; but the official opening is Friday, at the Museum of Contemporary Art’s Geffen Contemporary and runs through Sunday.

Presented by the New York-based nonprofit Printed Matter, which also puts on the N.Y. Art Book Fair, the free fair features an explosion of books, art catalogs and zines from more than 250 distributors, including international and indie presses, antiquarians and individual artists from about 25 countries -- proof that print is most assuredly not dead (not least of all, lovingly handcrafted, limited edition art books)

“There’s a really great scene here,” L.A. Art Book Fair curator Shannon Michael Cane said. “People are really excited about independent publishing. Last year MOCA predicted we’d have about 5,000 people, but we had 15,000.”

For its second go-round, the fair is kicking up its programming. Events will run almost hourly, including an N.Y. Art Book Fair staple, the Classroom. Curated by Museum of Modern Art librarian David Senior, the Classroom will hold about six sessions a day, including conversations, lectures, readings and signings featuring authors and artists showing on the event floor.

KChung Radio is broadcasting live from inside the Geffen and it will pick bands to play throughout the weekend in the courtyard.

Among the events MOCA is organizing around the fair: Friday it will screen punk ephemera collector Bryan Ray Turcotte and producer Bo Bushnell’s “The Art of Punk,” a three-part YouTube series that originally premiered on MOCAtv in mid-2013. It’s about the artists who created iconic punk logos for bands such as Black Flag and Dead Kennedys.

Turcotte will appear on a panel after the two screenings to discuss the series as well as his obsession with punk rock and collecting.

And visitors beware: The art book collecting bug will undoubtedly be going around this weekend. Don’t fight it off -- wear comfortable shoes and clear out room in the car trunk.

Twitter: @debvankin

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