History of the Mainz Mini Press Fair
The Mainz Mini Press Fair has developed from modest beginnings into the International Book Fair for Small Publishers and Artistic Hand Presses. A sales fair with an extensive accompanying program, in which sometimes completely incompatible opposites are presented side by side.
Press printers here and magazine makers there, artists on one side and oddballs on the other: the chemistry between the people who meet changes from fair to fair. That's what makes them so lively.
From the idea to the Pentecost Mass
Victor Otto Stomps came up with the idea for such a fair in 1953. Himself the owner of the publishing houses Rabenpresse, Eremitenpresse, and Neue Rabenpresse, he remains a role model to this day for those who stray from the beaten path of publishing in search of talent worthy of promotion.
However, Stomps never got beyond the idea stage. It took another ten years before the publisher of Kyklos-Presse took up the project and launched the Frankfurt "Literary Whitsun Fair."
In 1963, he took up the concept and organized the first Literary Whitsun Fair in Frankfurt. For the first time, underdogs, outsiders, loners, and self-publishers presented their publications to a wider audience.
The second Literary Pentecost Fair followed in 1964, and the third in 1968. The fair was intended to "document the current literary, artistic, and political trends of the present." However, the third of these fairs in 1968 was also the last. Although the fair was very successful in 1968, there were no further events in Frankfurt.
Birth of the Mainz Mini Press Fair
Norbert Kubatzki, known as "Kuba," a small publisher from Mainz, was less interested in the selection when he adopted the idea of a trade fair for small publishers in 1970 and launched it in the form of the Mainz Minipressen-Messe.
Ninety exhibitors showcased their products, and around 9,000 visitors attended. Since then, a growing number of exhibitors have been coming to Mainz, the city of Gutenberg, every two years to present their version of good books and prints.
Open trade fair concept
Much has changed and developed over the years. However different the exhibitors' products may be, they all have one thing in common: they are not in the publishing business for commercial success (although that is certainly welcome), but out of passion, desire, and conviction, with daring and a love of experimentation.
Development
The Mainz Minipressen-Messe has since become the largest book fair for small publishers and artistic hand presses in Europe, with around 360 small publishers exhibiting and up to 10,000 visitors. It has thus become a hub for the latest ideas and trends in printing and publishing literature and art.
V.O. Stomps Prize
Since 1979, the city of Mainz has been awarding a prize named after V.O. Stomps "for outstanding achievements in small-scale publishing" at the Mainz Minipressen-Messe (mini-press fair). It is one of the few small-scale publishing promotion prizes in Germany.