DABF26 Curator's Talk: Understructures

Bookings open 20 October alongside wider DABF26 programme announcement.

The tradition of the book, as we understand it, has for centuries tended towards closure. Recent developments in experimental publishing have pushed against the conservatism of some forms of conventional publishing, imagining on the contrary a book that might resemble an ‘open circuit’, defined by something other than the limitations of the single author, acknowledging and citing and bringing to the fore the many ways in which publications come into being.

This event brings together two writers, JR Carpenter and Ellen Dillon, who will be in conversation with Nathan O’Donnell to discuss how their work intersects with the thematic of the ‘Colophon,’ taking experimental approaches to authorship, the politics of acknowledgement and citation, plagiarism, and documentary poetics.

Ellen Dillon is a poet and teacher from Limerick. Her most recent book is How complete + final the feeling as I lift its curve in the net (Broken Sleep, 2026), and previous books include tentatives (Pamenar Press, 2023), Fare Thee Well, Miss Carousel (HVTN Press, 2023), Butter Intervention (Veer 2, 2022), Morsel May Sleep (Sublunary Editions, 2021) and Sonnets to Malkmus (Sad Press, 2019). She was Arts Council Writer in Residence in UCC in 2025.

JR Carpenter is an artist, writer, and researcher asking questions about place, displacement, and climate crisis across performance, print, and digital media. An Island of Sound, a digital poetry performance project created in collaboration with musician Jules Rawlinson, has been performed in Canada, Portugal, and the UK. This is Not A Good Sign, an Augmented Reality poetry project created in collaboration with Tomo Kihara, has been exhibited in the UK, Germany, and South Korea. Measures of Weather, a print poetry collection published by Shearsman Books, was The Observer’s poetry book of the month for February 2025 and a finalist for the Laurel Prize 2025. A poem from the collection was longlisted for the Forward Prizes 2025. Carpenter is a Lecturer in Creative Practice in Performance Writing at University of Leeds.

Dublin Art Book Fair (3–13 December 2026) 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 programme of book launches, publishers talks, and workshops, offering ways to engage and gain insight into contemporary independent and arts publishing.

Dublin Art Book Fair 2026 is generously sponsored by our longstanding partner Henry J Lyons and supported by Dublin UNESCO City of Literature.