{"id":408795,"date":"2026-07-23T01:23:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T01:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/408795\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T01:23:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T01:23:10","slug":"theres-a-zillion-things-to-see-at-the-sf-art-book-fair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/408795\/","title":{"rendered":"There\u2019s a Zillion Things to See at the SF Art Book Fair"},"content":{"rendered":"

A major publisher\u2019s Susan O\u2019Malley retrospective meets Daria Loard\u2019s new DIY electronic 12″ record.<\/p>\n

Jul 22, 2026<\/p>\n

Updated 5:15 pm PT<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The crowd at the 2024 SF Art Book Fair.\u00a0(Gabe Meline\/KQED)<\/p>\n

The SF Art Book Fair can be a little overwhelming. Books, zines<\/a>, stickers and prints blanket folding tables as far as the eye can see, if one is not looking instead at a giant crowd of people. As the annual event takes over the Minnesota Street Project<\/a> this weekend, two of the literal thousands of items for sale illustrate the diversity of the fair\u2019s wares.<\/p>\n

One is a major publisher\u2019s retrospective of a well-known artist. Christina Amini\u2019s It Will Be More Beautiful Than You Could Ever Imagine, published by Chronicle Books<\/a>, spans the life and work of Susan O\u2019Malley<\/a>. The average person may mostly know O\u2019Malley from her inspirational phrases presented on colorful backgrounds, thanks to very public displays (along Market Street, at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art) of her series Advice From My 80 Year-Old Self. Indeed, one of these is the book\u2019s cover.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u2018It Will Be More Beautiful Than You Could Ever Imagine,\u2019 by Christina Amini.<\/p>\n

But as It Will Be More Beautiful makes clear, over the course of 23 essays by friends and colleagues, O\u2019Malley\u2019s life work was so much more than uplifting, corporate breakroom-ready signage. Optimism was a constant for O\u2019Malley, but, as just one example, it took the form of rearranging items on people\u2019s lawns in her well-off San Jos\u00e9 neighborhood to make the world a little more interesting.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Organizing a \u201cPep Talk Squad.\u201d Listening to grandmothers. Sending files to a photocopy store in Houston to print and hang in the front window. These projects of O\u2019Malley\u2019s fell under the then-newish rubric of social practice, which centers the surrounding environment and its people, and which O\u2019Malley furthered in her work as one of the first graduates of the Social Practice program at CCA.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u2018What Is Your Secret Hope and Dream?,\u2019 a 2004\u201305 project for which Susan O\u2019Malley asked participants to write down their secret hopes and dreams, and then photograph her holding them.<\/p>\n

A sad coda from the present day is that CCA is now shutting down, and the seventh-wealthiest man in the world has just pledged millions<\/a> toward a plan to replace the school with one geared toward art, design, AI and technology. It\u2019s safe to say that O\u2019Malley\u2019s work, which has been revered, and inspired similar projects around the world, would find no home there.<\/p>\n

If a new visual artist working in an untraversed field like O\u2019Malley were to come along in 2026, their work would find a suitable soundtrack in the electronic music of Daria Loard<\/a>. The Oakland-based producer\u2019s work may be more obscure than O\u2019Malley\u2019s, both in visibility and method, but it\u2019s just as welcoming for those open to its embrace.<\/p>\n

\"\"Daria Loard\u2019s \u2018Spiritual Surveillance\u2019 EP. <\/p>\n

Released in an edition of 100 at the SF Art Book Fair, Loard\u2019s new 12\u201d EP, Spiritual Surveillance<\/a>, conjures very human scenes. Opener \u201cBackburner\u201d cuts up synths over a bugged-out beat, as if someone handed the Invisibl Skratch Piklz an Enya record mid-set. \u201cI Wasn\u2019t Invited\u201d is the sound of new age composer Ray Lynch and a Motown bassist hopping onstage during a 2000s London warehouse party.<\/p>\n

The EP, complete with a hand-sewn fabric cover, marks an evolution for Loard, who\u2019s releasing Spiritual Surveillance under her own name instead of her longtime moniker Bored Lord. Marking 10 years of living in Oakland after an upbringing in Memphis, it\u2019s also the latest in a discography spanning more than two dozen releases, including the exhilarating EP For The New Moon On November 30th 2024.<\/p>\n

Spiritual Surveillance by Daria Lourd<\/a><\/p>\n

Loard\u2019s record is released by Cone Shape Top<\/a>, an Oakland storefront and distributor decidedly more renegade and grassroots than Chronicle Books, and which reflects the underground with a passionate, robust spirit. Of the Bay Area\u2019s legacy of similar collectives, radio stations and DIY spaces, Loard once told an interviewer<\/a> that \u201cno matter how hard people try to change that, it always lives on in between the cracks.\u201d<\/p>\n

For a glimpse into those exciting, active cracks, the SF Art Book Fair is a sterling place to start.<\/p>\n

A signing and launch of \u2018It Will Be More Beautiful Than You Could Ever Imagine\u2019 takes place during the SF Art Book Fair, each day from Friday\u2013Sunday, from 12 p.m.\u20132 p.m. A record-release performance for \u2018Spiritual Surveillance\u2019 takes place Saturday, July 25, from 7\u201310 p.m. Both events are held in the warehouse at 1201 Minnesota Street, San Francisco.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A major publisher\u2019s Susan O\u2019Malley retrospective meets Daria Loard\u2019s new DIY electronic 12″ record. Jul 22, 2026 Updated…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":408796,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-408795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=408795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408795\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/408796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=408795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=408795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=408795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}