Beloved Art Bookstore Printed Matter Is Expanding to the East Village

This is going to blow the minds of East Villagers who complain about banks taking over every corner: An art bookstore is moving into the former home of a Chase bank. And not just any art bookstore: Chelsea tastemaker Printed Matter will open its second shop at 38 St. Marks Place this summer. For the many who are still mourning the loss of the St. Mark’s Bookshop, this is very good news indeed.

Printed Matter was founded in 1976 by artist Sol LeWitt and critic Lucy R. Lippard; in 2015, the non-profit, which operates two wildly popular book fairs in New York and Los Angeles, expanded to its current home in Chelsea in order to better accommodate its exhaustive collection of new and used art books, zines, and ephemera. The second store, like the mothership, will feature “independently published bookworks, zines, rare and historical material, along with a selection of artist-made multiples, prints, and posters,” according to a press release.

The St. Marks shop will share a home with the Swiss Institute, a Switzerland-focused contemporary art organization that was displaced from Soho and is moving to the corner of St. Marks and Second Avenue. Swiss Institute’s new home, in the boxy, two-story, midcentury building that Chase vacated in 2015, will accommodate “exhibitions, projects and public programs, a library, a bookstore, and a rooftop garden,” according to the organization’s website. The 7,500-square-foot building is currently being remodeled by Selldorf Architects.

According to Printed Matter, their East Village outpost will offer readings, talks, and performance, and will allow for the launch of “new community outreach initiatives, such as the development of educational programs that will reach diverse audiences in the East Village, Chinatown, and the Lower East Side and will include presentations on the history of artists’ books and book-making workshops.”

Printed Matter / St. Mark’s is expected to open in June.