Paul John is an artist, community organizer, photographer, and educator. His work is to connect people and create community via bookmaking, events, and institution building.

John’s practice addresses the gaps of what institutions say and what actually happens. His publishing practice was to perforate glass ceilings by focusing on resource distribution in an effort to disrupt normal hierarchical structures (pay-to-play, rub shoulders with the right crowd, etc).

John also uses education as a vehicle for his practice, attempting systems of exchanging labor for education and sharing resources with those who joined the community. Endless Editions and the Brooklyn Art Book Fair are two main projects that John has founded, and they continue today with volunteers who joined the projects as work-exchanges. Both aim to create opportunities for people without resources to participate in the art book community via a free fair and a low-risk approach to risograph printing.

Presently, John has taken an interest in ice cream, both in making and serving it. Having worked many years in the service industry, it is a return to something of his past. A main interest John has is creating spaces where strangers can engage with each other in a non-competitive way,  such as eating ice cream or looking at books together.

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Featured Image: Something Up on 39th Street, 2021. Artist book. Courtesy of the artist.