Join us for an evening of readings of texts written by artist-publisher Vivian Sming on what has compelled them to publish over 80 books in the last almost-decade. Sming shares their thoughts on making books at the birthplace of techno-fascist dystopia, and discusses the contradictions of the book as a simultaneously permanent yet fragile material that is gaining importance every day as the sword in the stone nestled in the belly of the empire.

This event is presented in conjunction with Closer Reading: Three Bay Area Book Artists, on view at the CCA Campus Gallery September 2–October 23, 2026. It is made possible with support from the San Francisco Advocacy for the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

Vivian Sming

Vivian Sming (she/they) is an artist-publisher who experiments with books as art, discourse, exhibition, and archive. Since 2017, Sming has published a wide range of artists' books through their studio, Sming Sming Books, where they work in close collaboration with artists whose works and ideas inform design, material, and printing choices. They hold a BA in Art from UCLA and an MFA from CalArts. Sming has been a Fellow at YBCA, Curatorial Fellow at the Letterform Archive, and Guest Curator for the Vancouver Art Book Fair. Sming Sming Books titles are held in over 150 libraries worldwide and have been featured in Aperture, Art in America, BOMB Magazine, Hyperallergic, and the New York Times. Sming has received Printed Matter's Shannon Michael Cane Memorial Award, a San Francisco Art Book Fair Publishing Grant, an Alternative Exposure Grant from Southern Exposure, and was a 2023 YBCA 100 Honoree.