Diane Dias De Fazio
My mother encouraged my love of collecting, which led me to amass a few small collections in a variety of areas. My two largest subjects are New York World's Fairs' ephemera (1939–40 and 1964–65) and the book arts "triumvirate"—artists' books, letterpress and offset printing, and handmade paper.
I studied nineteenth- and twentieth-century art, and fell hard for contemporary art, architecture, and history; by the time I started college, I had architectural realia on my bookcases next to ephemera from Felix Gonzalez-Torres's Guggenheim retrospective and monographs on Georgia O'Keeffe and Keith Haring.
My interest in artists' books grew out of obsessions with print and handmade paper and exciting work by artists using twentieth-century technology (risograph, high-speed offset litho, mimeo, photocopiers). I recently started to collect contemporary work in this category, focusing on artists born after 1940 and alternative/underground press.
After moving to New York City as a teen, I connected with my family's history there, via remnants of the World's Fairs at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. It naturally followed that I collect ephemera from those two World's Fairs. The item included here combines three of my interests: brand cookbooks, offset printing, and the 1964–65 NY World's Fair.
Invaders of the Great Lakes: Zebra Mussels.
Mary Clare Butler. Chicago: Fata Morgana Press, 2019. Four-color wood type poster. 13" x 19".
I grew up spending weekends at Lake Erie state parks. Grey pebble beaches and forested trails influenced my understanding of what "going to the beach" looks like—a long horizon, shorebirds, and the occasional commercial ship. Cargo vessels also brought "invaders" (zebra mussels), that continue to impact the Great Lakes' ecosystem, including a coastline now peppered with bivalve shells. Butler's poster is from a series of broadsides created with an accompanying contemporary "field guide" to environmental concerns.
Heinz Magic of Food Show from the Theatre of Food—Festival of Gas Pavilion, New York World's Fair 1964–1965: Recipes Prepared by the Home Economics Department, H. J. Heinz Company.
Pittsburgh, PA: H. J. Heinz Company, [1964?]
Family lore, historic preservation training, and my architectural history background drew me to the New York World's Fair site in Queens. I chose to include it because it's an example of my overlapping interests rolled into one: brand-specific cookbooks (Heinz), 1964–65 NY World's Fair ephemera, and offset chromolithographic printing. A recipe for pie that includes ketchup? Fantastic!
Two (2) booklets, Heinz Magic of Food Recipes (with recipe cards) and Heinz Magic of Food Show.
Letters to Chicago.
Sir Charles (aka Life of a Busy Dad). Risograph printing by Flatlands Press, Chicago, IL; Letterpress by is PRESS, Denver, CO; New York: Almighty & Insane Books, 2019.
I met graffiti writer Sir Charles (aka "Life of a Busy Dad") at the 2019 New York Art Book Fair, and instantly connected with his work. Letters to Chicago combines gang lettering with archival images of the city's lost landscapes—Cabrini Green, the Near North Side, and Blue Island Avenue, among others—in a meditation on "urban renewal." Sourced from Chicago Public Library's Special Collections, the haunting black-and-white images showcase the human side, and toll, of "revitalization" projects.