The seeds of VABF were planted in 2006 when Tracy Stefanucci (our current Artistic Director) and Ken Yong founded one cool word, an art and literary magazine that included a CD compilation of local music and exclusively featured work by Vancouverites. In 2010, Stefanucci registered the organization as the non-profit Society OCW Arts & Publishing Foundation and, with the help of Jaz Halloran, the magazine was relaunched as the artists’ publication OCW Magazine. One year later, the bookshop/gallery Project Space was opened at 222 East Georgia Street in Chinatown. From 2011 to 2013, Project Space presented many curatorial projects and it also served as a community hub and venue for a variety of art and literary events, readings and workshops. After observing the building energy around art publishing in Vancouver, Stefanucci founded the first annual Vancouver Art/Book Fair in 2012 at the Vancouver Art Gallery. In 2013, the Project Space storefront was closed in order to focus on the art book fair, but the organization continued to go by the name Project Space for a few years. In 2016 the backslash in the VABF name was dropped and the name “Vancouver Art Book Fair” began being used to refer to the organization as well as the annual event. Today, VABF is proud to operate the first international art book fair in Canada, while also serving the local art publishing community year-round through various curatorial events and activities. The organization is run by a dedicated team of independent contractors, volunteers and Board Members, and seeks to establish Vancouver as an international centre for artists’ publishing.