DABF25 Publishing Talk | Beyond Caring: Para-hosting as Curatorial Escape

Curator, artist and writer Dr. Paul O’Neill and educator and editor Dr. Gerrie van Noord will present, read and discuss excerpts from their on-going cooperative editorial projects, and from some of the recent books on which they have worked together in different ways, including Not Going It Alone: Collective Curatorial Curating (ApexArt, 2024), Curious (Open Editions, 2024) and Beyond Caring: Para-hosting and Curatorial Escape ((Floating Opera Press, 2025).

The book Not Going it Alone: Collective Curatorial Curating looks at the recent prominence of collective approaches to curatorial practice, contributions recognize the myriad other actors and agencies – from artists to installers, gallery attendants to directors, et al. – who make the work possible. A collection of edited interviews conducted at the beginning of the new millennium, Curious reflects on the moment contemporary curating emerged to become the established creative occupation it is today. Beyond Caring: Para-hosting as Curatorial Escape builds on concepts of “the curatorial” as a form of research-in-and-with-public attentiveness, this book outlines para-hosting as a cooperative means of curatorial escape through which not only curators but also art institutions / museums / academia can practice publicness.

This event is part of the DABF Publishing Talks Series which is supported by the Creative Europe Desk Ireland. The Creative Europe programme supports a diverse literature and publishing sector across Europe, funding writers, translators, publishers, and the distributors of European works of Literature.

Dr. Paul O’Neill is an Irish curator, artist, writer, and educator. He is the Artistic Director of PUBLICS, a curatorial agency, contemporary art commissioner, event and exhibition space in Helsinki. Recent curatorial projects include 24 Hour Tony Cokes, Amos Rex, Helsinki (2025); AA Bronson, General Idea, Art Metropole, PUBLICS, Helsinki (2024); the year-long Coalescence Happenstance with All Due Intent, Shimmer Rotterdam (2024-25); Coalesce Sometime Later, The Showroom, London (2023-24); The Voice That Remains, (2021-24).

Dr. Gerrie van Noord is an editor/curator of publications and educator who explores the potential of publishing as an arena of artistic and curatorial practices, in which collaboration is key to her approach. She has a longstanding working relationship with Paul O’Neill. Other projects include Between the Material and the Possible (ed. Bassam El Baroni, MIT Press, 2022), and Olivia Plender, Rise Early, Be Industrious (Sternberg Press, 2016). She edited a selection of Isabel Nolan’s writing for Curling Up with Reality (Launchpad and Kerlin Gallery, 2021). Gerrie is a lecturer at the Royal College of Art in London in the MA Curating Contemporary Art.

Dublin Art Book Fair (4–14 December 2025) is a centre for contemporary artist books offering a wide selection of artist publications and titles from creative, small and independent publishers, both Irish or international, to browse or buy. In conjunction with the Fair, DABF presents an event programme of book launches, publishers talks, and workshops offering ways to engage and gain insight into contemporary independent and arts publishing.

Event location Information: This event will take place on the first floor accessible via lift and stairs. Seating will be theatre style. For further accessibility information please contact Learning + Public Engagement Curator Órla Goodwin.

DABF25 is proudly sponsored by Henry J Lyons and supported by Dublin UNESCO City of Literature and RTÉ Supporting The Arts.