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Collage of books and a photographic portrait of Vivian Sming

Lectures & Salons

Salon Series 36: New Ideas in Visual Language

with Vivian Sming

See new work from artists who explore unusual letterforms, modular typography, and unique reading experiences.

  • Date
  • Time
  • Where Onsite at Letterform Archive and Online via Zoom

Our Curatorial Fellow, Vivian Sming, will present highlights from her new acquisitions for the Archive that are in dialogue with our existing collection. We’ll see unusual letterforms created by bookworms, modular typography, unique and collaborative reading experiences, and books by contemporary artists using language in their work.

This event will be held on-site at Letterform Archive in San Francisco where attendees will have an opportunity to meet Sming and Archive staff, while viewing the objects up close. We will also stream the presentation live for online attendees anywhere in the world.

A coinciding pop-up exhibition will be on view in the Archive’s reading room February 2–26.

About the Salon Series

Letterform Archive’s Salon Series is a regular event featuring a deeper dive into specific collections or themes within the Archive. Salon recordings are available exclusively to members. Visit your member benefits page to access the video.

Vivian Sming

Preoccupied with ethics and the tension between theory and practice, Vivian Sming’s work as an artist-publisher is an exploration of language, representation, access, and the juxtaposition of ideas, politics, and positions. Sming holds a BA in Art from UCLA and an MFA from CalArts, and has over a decade of experience with art book publishing as a designer, writer, editor, and DIY bookmaker. Sming was previously a Fellow at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Curatorial Fellow at Letterform Archive, and Guest Curator for the Vancouver Art Book Fair. Currently, Sming is the Design Director at 826 Valencia, a 2023 Small Plates Artist at the San Francisco Center for the Book, and will be exhibiting their work with Sming Sming Books at the Center for Book Arts in New York in April 2023.

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