October is Chicago Artists Month, and to add to the celebration, a DIY: Photographers and Books exhibition is in town.

The DIY: Photographers and Books exhibition will explore print-on-demand photo books, a unique type of story artwork. Print-on-demand books can be found on online publishing websites such as Lulu and Blurb, where anyone can design and publish their own book. As assumed by their name, printon- demand books are printed and distributed only at times when a customer orders a book. Print-on-demand books are advantageous because there is no struggle to find a printing place or a publisher; you can simply print yourself.

Jessica Cochran, the curator running the exhibition, says the exhibition is unique because “unlike usual art shows, where you look at a picture on a wall, [during this exhibition] you can actually come in, go through the pages, and read the artwork yourself.”

The DIY: Photographers and Books exhibition is a juried exhibition. After a call for artists was conducted and many print-on-demand books were assembled, a jury inspected all the submissions. They chose the most captivating, conceptual and unexpected books and these became the books featured in the exhibition.

The exhibition runs through Dec. 7. It features two interactive tours Nov. 7 and Nov. 12, in association with the State of Mind: New California Art Circa 1970 exhibition featured at the Smart Museum of Art. It also features a panel discussion titled Photobook Futures and Book Swap Thursday, Dec. 6. This panel features a curator from the Cleveland museum, who ran the DIY: Photographers and Books exhibition the first time it was showed, and will be coming to the second showing of the exhibition to share her thoughts on the last show. Many artists featured in the exhibition will also appear on the panel to speak about their artwork. The panel discussion is free and open to the public.

Cochran stresses going to the exhibition because “print-ondemand books is an art form that not many people know about… it’s a very fascinating genre of art.”

Anyone interested in getting involved with the Center for Book and Paper Arts or other art exhibitions during or after Chicago Artists Month is encouraged to go to the Center for Book and Paper Arts at 1104 S. Wabash Ave., which is open daily, to view their art center and galleries.