CHELSEA — Beloved bookstore Printed Matter will move five blocks up to a new two-level location in September.
The shop specializes in “artists’ books,” books handmade or hand-Xeroxed by artists that contain original drawings, photography or text.
The new space at 231 11th Ave., designed pro-bono by Handel Architects, will provide more room for events and exhibitions as well as sorely-needed book display space.
“There’s constantly the sound of falling books as people jostle them and stuff like that,” said Printed Matter’s executive director Max Schumann, motioning to the stacks laid out on tables around the store’s back room.
Schumann said Printed Matter is growing thanks to resurgent interest in do-it-yourself publishing. Applications to show work in their annual Art Book Fair at MOMA PS1 in September are online.
Printed Matter, a nonprofit founded by Sol Lewitt and other artists in SoHo in 1976, has been on 10th Avenue for nine years. Its new lease will double its square footage.