The Last Bookstores documents America’s remaining independent bookstores and the people behind their survival and potential comeback. The exhibition features photographs and text by Viola Award winning Flagstaff artist Bryan David Griffith.

The exhibition will be open in the Project Gallery at the Coconino Center for the Arts from August 23 through October 28, 2016, alongside The Road Ahead exhibition in the Main Gallery. The Last Bookstores can first be seen by Arts Council members at a Preview Opening on Saturday, August 20, 2016, 6-8pm. The public opening reception will be Saturday, August 27, 2016.

Griffith pairs photographs— meticulously crafted with the dying art of large-format film — with quotes distilled from hours of interview material with booksellers. The first-hand accounts provoke questions about how the growth of big-box chain retailers and Amazon effect the distribution of literature and impact local economies.

The Last Bookstores debuted in Boston at the Griffin Museum of Photography in 2015. The project has been featured in Slate and PDN magazines, and reviewed in Harvard Magazine and The Boston Globe.