Printed Matter, Inc. is a nonprofit organization dedicated to publishing, distributing, and promoting artists' books, founded in 1976 in Tribeca by a consortium of artists and writers including Sol LeWitt, Lucy Lippard, Edit DeAk, Pat Steir, and Carl Andre. The organization grew out of Sol LeWitt's belief that artists should control the production of their own publications, at a time when artists' books were often dismissed as promotional ephemera rather than art. Printed Matter became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in 1978 under director Ingrid Sischy and has since operated as both a bookstore and an artist-run exhibition space, selling affordably priced editioned works. It also organizes the annual NY Art Book Fair, launched in 2006, and the LA Art Book Fair, launched in 2013. Printed Matter is now based in Chelsea, Manhattan.