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In the front are racks of loose pamphlets of ephemera and zines. Sturdy industrial bookshelves are scattered towards the middle, and as you continue walking toward the back of the store, posters and art prints hang on the wall, ready for purchase. It’s unlike any other bookstore I’ve been in. The layout itself is open and inviting. It’s visually interesting, as an art bookstore should be. As you get closer to look at the books, the world opens up. Titles like “An Elemental Typology” and “The Architecture of Disability” tell me how much there is to learn about the bounds of the art world. Familiar names, like an artist book on Ed Ruscha, expand my understanding of the artist.

Art Metropole has been a staple in Toronto for the last fifty years. It started in the studio of General Idea, in the Art Metropole building at Yonge and Dundas. The building is well-known and from where the bookstore took its name. 

The bookstore has since hopscotched across the city in various locations, including King St. W. (where I visited as a teenager) and the new MOCA Toronto building on Sterling Avenue (where I visited in my late twenties). Art Metropole is a non-profit, artist-run center, which means that it has its finger on the pulse of the Canadian art scene and actively works to support the livelihoods and careers of artists. It publishes, promotes, and distributes art books and ephemera — collaborating with everyone from Michael Snow to Yoko Ono. More recently, Art Metropole has published books and editions by Canadian artists Nour Bishouty, Geoffrey Farmer and Luis Jacob.

The archive at Art Metropole currently holds over 16,000 items of cultural significance to modern and contemporary art, and another 13,000 objects are housed at the National Gallery of Canada’s Library & Archives. The vast collection makes it an important archive for both cultural institutions and artists working in the city. If you’ve ever gazed into a display case at a museum and seen ephemera from an artist’s edition or a magazine, there’s a chance that it was borrowed from Art Metropole’s vast collection. For example, right now, ephemera from Art Metropole’s archive is on view at John Scott’s exhibition at the McMichael Canadian Collection.

Founded by the artist collective General Idea, the Canadian artist trio best known for their iconic AIDS poster, which mimics the pop art style of Robert Indiana, Art Metropole originated as part of Art-Official Inc., a project to foster collaboration among artists. The legacy continues through the publication of art books of emerging and mid-career Canadian artists, panel talks, and hosting book and magazine launches. Art Metropole, often playfully shortened to Art Met, embodies a Toronto ethos rooted in DIY and community organizing. There’s a respect for the past while concurrently promoting the future of arts in Canada that is crucial.

Here’s what I think it comes down to: the buy-in at Art Metropole is low. You can buy an art zine for under $10, a book for $30, or an artist edition to hang on your wall for $100. Compare that to the prices at an art gallery, where pieces go for tens of thousands of dollars, and a bookstore becomes a beacon of accessibility. Art books are a democratic way for anyone to access art and take it home to live with. A piece of art history, ready for purchase.

Correction — Feb. 4, 2024

This article has been updated. A previous version incorrectly stated that Art Metropole started in a small office in Greektown and has since hopscotched across the city in various locations, including Queen Street West. In fact, the art bookstore’s first location was in the studio of General Idea, in a building called Art Metropole, at Yonge and Dundas. There was never a Queen St. W. location, but rather King St. W. and Richmond St. W.