Graphic Arts Center Publishing Company was a book publishing company based in Portland,

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. Graphic Arts Center was one of the Northwest's largest book publishers, publishing about 40 books annually and selling over 500 titles to the U.S.,

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and

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. Using three imprints — Graphic Arts Books, Alaska Northwest Books, and WestWinds Press — Graphic Arts published and distributed books that focused on lifestyle and place. The company filed for bankruptcy and was liquidated in November 2009.

History

Graphic Arts Center Publishing started in 1967 as a division of Graphic Arts Center, Inc., Oregon's largest printer. The publishing house was one of the pioneers in publishing large-format, full-color print books. These became known as "

coffee table book A coffee table book, also known as a cocktail table book, is an oversized, usually hard-covered book whose purpose is for display on a table intended for use in an area in which one entertains guests and from which it can serve to inspire convers ...

s." Their first book in this format was the popular ''Oregon'', a book of photographs by Ray Atkeson, which became a series that includes ''Oregon 2'' and ''Oregon III''. In the mid 1980s, Graphic Arts began to diversify from photographic books into subjects like children's fiction and non-fiction. In 1993, Graphic Arts acquired Alaska Northwest Books, the largest trade book publisher in the

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S. ...

n market. In 1998, Graphic Arts started its third imprint, WestWinds Press, to launch a series of

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

titles and photography books. In April 2006, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. In October 2006,

Ingram Content Group Ingram Content Group is an American service provider to the book publishing industry, based in La Vergne, Tennessee. It is a subsidiary of Ingram Industries. Shawn Morin is CEO, and John R. Ingram is chairman of Ingram Industries. History The ...

invested in Graphic Arts as part of a bankruptcy reorganization plan. In January 2007, Graphic Arts Center Publishing Company emerged from bankruptcy. The company again filed for bankruptcy in order to liquidate in November 2009.

References

Companies based in Portland, Oregon Publishing companies established in 1968 Book publishing companies based in Oregon Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2006 Privately held companies based in Oregon Defunct companies based in Oregon 1968 establishments in Oregon 2009 disestablishments in Oregon {{US-publish-company-stub