JANE BROWN | DATE 2/25/2011

Big City Forum: Making a Case for the Book in the Digital Age, Wednesday, March 2, 7-9PM

Please join ARTBOOK | D.A.P., Paper Chase Printing and Big City Forum for a lively conversation with David Ulin, book critic for the Los Angeles Times and author of The Lost Art of Reading: Why Books Are So Important in a Distracted Time; Lisa Pearson, publisher of Siglio Press, and Lorraine Wilde, renowned book designer and founder of Green Dragon Office.

Wednesday, March 2nd, 7-9 pm
ARTBOOK @ Paper Chase
7174 West Sunset Blvd (corner of Sunset and Formosa)
Phone: (323) 969-8985

Presenters will advocate for the primacy of the physical book, even as contemporary culture continues to charge towards an ever-changing constellation of digital media. Ulin, Pearson and Wild will discuss books as physical artifacts, and the inherent qualities that cannot be replicated in other media.

David Ulin is the book critic for the Los Angeles Times. His new book, The Lost Art of Reading: Why Books Are So Important in a Distracted Time, explores the particular importance of literature today, blending commentary with memoir, and addressing the significance of the simple act of reading in an increasingly digital culture. Previous books include The Myth of Solid Ground: Earthquakes, Prediction, and the Fault Line Between Reason and Faith and the anthologies Another City: Writing from Los Angeles and Writing Los Angeles: A Literary Anthology. Ulin has written for The Atlantic Monthly, The Nation, The New York Times Book Review, LA Weekly, Los Angeles, and NPR’s All Things Considered. He is a professor in USC's Masters of Professional Writing program.

Lisa Pearson is the founding editor of Siglio Press, an independent Los Angeles publisher dedicated to books that live at the intersections of art and literature. Artists and writers on the Siglio list include Joe Brainard, Danielle Dutton, Robert Seydel, Nancy Spero, Keith Waldrop and Denis Wood. According to a recent review by Ulin, “At a garage studio in Eagle Rock, Lisa Pearson is publishing books with the skill of a craftsman, framing the printed word as a work of art. Her books' physicality is part of their function; they are meant to be held as well as read."

Lorraine Wild is an award-winning graphic designer and the founder of the influential graphic design firm, Green Dragon Office. She is the cofounder of both Foggy Notion Books and Greybull Press. Wild helped form Cal Arts' renowned graphic design program nearly three decades ago, and has remained on the faculty since 1985. She has designed monographs and exhibition catalogs on Richard Prince, Mike Kelley, Gabriel Orozco, Mies van der Rohe Daniel Libeskind, Semina Culture and WACK! among many others. She has received awards from the ACD, AIGA and I.D., and has also been a recipient of the Chrysler Award for Innovation in Design. Her publication designs were the subject of exhibitions at SFMOMA, and the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum.