Houston’s Domy Books Expands to Austin

By Edward Nawotka -- Publishers Weekly, 4/18/2008 9:00:00 AM

Houston’s Domy Books, which celebrated its second anniversary on April 1, is opening a second location, in Austin, Tex., later this month. Located in a former convenience store on the corner of Cesar Chavez and Interstate 35, the new 1,800-sq.-ft. branch is nearly identical in size to the original location. Like its namesake, it will offer a selection of art books, graphic novels, magazines, literature and quirky sidelines.

The Houston location of Domy (which Russian slang for “home”) was originally opened as an art gallery in 1992, and converted to a bookstore in 2006 when owner Dan Fergus realized that contemporary art translated much faster to books than it did to the gallery or museum world. “An artist can put out a monograph of their work very quickly, while it might take years or a lifetime to get a show in a given city,” he said.

Domy offers no distinct sections and the products are mixed together to create “dialogue.” The space in Houston provides a venue for community events, from this month’s “Indie Press Book Festival” to readings and shows by local artists. The Austin branch will serve as a dual art gallery/bookstore; the launch event for the Austin store will feature Brooklyn publisher Dan Nadel presenting his newest titles from PictureBox Books.

“Austin should be a good fit for us,” said Fergus, adding, “Our greatest success so far as a bookstore is that we haven’t lost money—which is the sort of success we hope to repeat.”