Design by Sam Kim
Meet Me in the Archive
Book launch, exhibition and panel conversation
On Saturday 19 September we celebrate the launch of How to Spend an Hour in an Art Book Archive, by our Archivist in Residence, Sam Kim from Common Imprint (Berlin). The publication was composed over the past months in collaboration between Common Imprint and PrintRoom, with contributions by invited archivists-for-one-hour.
We start with a short tour through the exhibition (Un)shared Titles: Book Book Festival in Seoul × PAGES Fukuoka Art Book Fair, installed in PrintRoom’s Living Archive space since early July and open to visitors until October.
The book launch will be followed by a conversation among fellow archivists and reading room hosts, in which they will address the motivation to start an archive – and the way they activate it:
Sam Kim: Common Imprint Reading Room, Berlin
Jhen Chen: Limestone Books, Maastricht
Matthew James-Wilson: Heavy Manners Library, Los Angeles
Nell Donkers: Archive de Appel, Amsterdam
Karin de Jong: Living Archive PrintRoom, Rotterdam
Programme
17:00 Doors open, Schietbaanstraat 17
17:15 Introduction to (Un)Shared Titles by Sam Kim
Move to Van Speykstraat 121 (just around the corner) / short break
18:00 Book launch How to Spend and Hour in an Art Book Archive
18:30 Introductions and panel conversation
19:30 Drinks
How to Spend an Hour in an Art Book Archive will be available at a reduced price during the launch.
Snacks and drinks provided
About the publication
How to Spend an Hour in Art Book Archive brings together reflections and encounters from Common Imprint’s Archivist in Residency at PrintRoom in Rotterdam. Through the archive, it explores collecting, publishing and the relationships that form around books, while asking how an art book archive can remain active through reading, conversation and new ways of encountering what it contains.
Contributions by: Kyung Yong Lim (The Book Society) • Saghi Parkhideh (Tehran Zine) • minor moons • Chang Wen-Hsuan (Writing FACTory) • Lu Lin • Michał Chojecki (Oficyna Peryferie / Warsaw Zine Library) • Chaeyoung (Chae) Kim • Januar Rianto (Further Reading) • Jhen Chen (Limestone Books) • Portal Editions • Susu Lee • Sofia Niazi (Rabbits Road Press) • Karel Martens
Introduction and reflection by Karin de Jong and Sam Kim, editing and graphic design by Sam Kim, proofreading by You Wu and Sayaka Yoshii, Riso printed at PrintRoom by ise and frank. Co published by Common Imprint and PrintRoom
About Sam Kim and Common Imprint
Sam Kim (KR/DE) is a graphic designer, exhibition designer, and publisher who co-founded Common Imprint, a reading room and event space focused on Asian publications in Berlin, together with The Book Society, a publishing collective in Seoul. Common Imprint presents more than 1000 independent publications from Asia, functioning as a communal platform and laboratory for research into artist publishing from South, Southeast, and East Asia. The collective organises readings, events, workshops, and exhibitions with a focus on art, photography, film, design, and architecture.
(Un)shared Titles: Book Book Festival in Seoul × PAGES Fukuoka Art Book Fair
The publications in (Un)shared Titles were donated to Common Imprint during the installation at PAGES Fukuoka Art Book Fair, where Sam Kim presented books gathered over several years by visiting art book fairs across fourteen cities. Following presentations at Book Book Festival in Seoul and PAGES Fukuoka Art Book Fair, PrintRoom is delighted to bring this collection of Asian art publications to our community in the Netherlands.
left: (Un)Shared Titles: Book Book Festival in Seoul × PAGES Fukuoka Art Book Fair, right: Sam Kim / Common Imprint at the Books Are Bridges Art Book Fest 2026
More information about the participants
Heavy Manners is a lending library, gallery, and bookstore in Los Angeles, that focuses on self and independently published books, zines, and other media. The library provides a space for developing, sharing, and discussing artwork and creative practice, working directly with artists and small publishers, to make overlooked, out of print, and hard to find media accessible. Heavy Manners Library was founded by Matthew James-Wilson in 2021.
Since 2002 Nell Donkers has managed the archive (library, archive and collection) of De Appel in Amsterdam and made it digitally and physically accessible. The archive represents the memory of De Appel and has become a knowledge- and meeting place for researchers, artists and art lovers, wherein Donkers plays a connecting role. In different set-ups Donkers initiates and organises presentations and events with and about the rich history of De Appel using ephemera and digitised audio and video. In addition, she invites contemporary artists who work with themes like archiving, bookmaking, systemising and use the tactic of “story in storytelling.”
Limestone Books is an art bookshop in Maastricht, founded in late 2022 by five Taiwanese cultural workers living in the Netherlands. Through its diverse, multilingual, and non-Western perspectives in its selection and programming, the bookshop has gradually become a gathering place for diasporic communities. Limestone Books invited more than ten local groups and art collectives to each contribute 20 books. These contributions were integrated with its existing archives to form a collective library, offering membership to nearby residents so they can borrow books for free. The collection continues to evolve over time, shaped and influenced by the local community and responding to current sociopolitical realities.
PrintRoom hosts a dynamic collection of artist publications named ‘The Living Archive’ (since 2003). The collection also represents PrintRoom’s history as a platform for artist publishing. In addition to the publications collected, it contains rich documentation of past events, workshops, or gatherings in the form of photos, videos, and recordings, but also printed ephemera such as flyers, posters, business cards, invitations, letters, and other evidence materialising a network of relations between individuals and collectives in the field of artistic publishing. The Living Archive is a long-term project that intends to structure, historiographically narrate, and ultimately activate PrintRoom’s ever-growing collection as a living, dynamic resource.