”Print. Book. Zine.” The Small Press Fair, with its name and laconic tagline, condenses a two-day event and an underlying philosophy into a snappy statement of purpose. The fair is a response to rising screen time. It’s a safe space for printmakers and their tactile wares. It’s a tribute to the nearly 600-year history of the printing press.

“As the digital age thoroughly permeates modern life — communication, entertainment, and culture — perhaps to the point of over-saturation, traditional printed matter has been pushed to the periphery,” SPF co-founder Ingrid Schindall tells PureHoney. “In the outer fringes, it’s there where SPF brings light to the tenacious efforts of artists, designers, writers, and creatives who are keeping the craft alive.”

Born when gallerist Sarah Michelle Rupert of Girls’ Club approached fine art printmaker and book artist Schindall of IS Projects and Nocturnal Press about a collaboration, the first SPF was a one-day gathering in 2016 at FATVillage in Fort Lauderdale. The eighth edition will feature more than 60 exhibitors — Schindall confirmed another one mid-interview — and doesn’t stop at masterpieces on paper: Ceramics, temporary tattoos, buttons and shirts abound.

There are food trucks and beer tastings alongside the workshops, lectures and hands-on maker stations where attendees can create letterpress, screen printing and mini-posters. There is the ever-popular Steamroller Station making prints with a paving construction vehicle. And there’s an afterparty.

“SPF South Florida is unique in its drive to bring together prints, books, zines, and their makers in one space to foster community building, friendships, collaboration, and new interests for folks who thought they were coming here for one type of thing but then found lots of exhibitors showcasing something totally different and new,” Schindall says. Below are just a few.

— Joseph Velasquez is a Florida Atlantic University printmaking professor and frequent SPF exhibitor with a visual style marked by social commentary and provocative symbols. An important figure in South Florida arts, he names influences including Chicano writers and activists such as Oscar Zeta Acosta, Dolores Huerta and Rudolfo Anaya.

— Kim Heise is a watercolorist specializing in the natural environment in South Florida. Since 2016. Her work lives at the intersection of scientific illustration and fine art, highlighting relationships between species. And you can check out her “Everglades Coloring Book” at SPF.

— The 50/50 Company, is a creative design team with a feline focus, but sprinkled among the cat-centric work, attendees might also find whimsical depictions of gremlins and dogs or a piñata saying, “Why choose violence.”

— Martin Mazorra co-founded Cannonball Press in 1999 with Michael Houston to self-publish their prints and those of emerging artists. Of Brooklyn-based Mazorra, Schindall says, “He’s known for badass, old-school relief prints that can stop a viewer in their tracks with their unique style and affordable prices.”

— O, Miami is a non-profit organization that builds community through poetry. Their bibliography spans poetry chapbooks with hand-screen-printed covers, books featuring multilingual poems, local poets, and internationally recognized poets. Locals may also recognize the name behind the O, Miami Poetry Festival.

— Paul Shortt’s tagline is “Signs, books, videos and social practice with a bit of humor.” The Gainesville-based artist, curator, and educator creates prints and books that encourage fun, thoughtfulness and a desire to change your surroundings for the better. They’re also designed for pages to be ripped out and hung in public or framed.

— Radiator Comics distributes self-published and small-press comics such as “Dirty Diamonds,” an award-winning all-girl comic anthology with a distinctly memoir-ish vibe. Other Radiator standouts include the dark horror-comedy of “The Devil’s Guide to Filmland” by Barrett Stanley, plant-people parallelism in “Cosmic Fern” by Sarah Maloney; and a humorous coming-of-age in “Trash” by Desmond Reed.

— passionkids is an SPF staple and fair favorite. “passionkids bring the rad street art style zines, pins, and patches that lots of visitors expect when entering a zine fair,” Schindall says. “Their unique characters and drawing style definitely stand out.”

— Horticulture For Healing founder Joanna is a horticultural therapy practitioner based in Miami. When reconnecting with nature became a part of Joanna’s recovery from addiction, she founded a nonprofit to share her knowledge for others in recovery through a unique zine, “Plant Care is Self Care.”

— The Wolfsonian-FIU works with Miami-Dade County public high school students on Zines for Progress, an outreach program that tackles real-world issues through zine-making. The student zines cover mental health, gender identity, climate change, Black Lives Matter and more, and are distributed in the community — “a window into what young people find significant today,” says Wolfsonian-FIU’s Luna Goldberg.

Small Press Fair runs noon-6pm Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 11 and 12, at MAD Arts in Dania Beach. spf-ftl.com Photos by Monica McGivern ~ Amanda Moore