Graphic Arts Center Publishing Company is a book publishing

Publishing

Publishing is the process of production and dissemination of literature or information—the activity of making information available to the general public...

 company based in Portland

Portland, Oregon

Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...

, Oregon

Oregon

Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

.

Graphic Arts Center is one of the Northwest's

Northwestern United States

The Northwestern United States comprise the northwestern states up to the western Great Plains regions of the United States, and consistently include the states of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, to which part of southeast Alaska is also sometimes included...

 largest book publishers, publishing about 40 books annually and selling over 500 titles to the U.S., Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 and Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

. Using three imprints—Graphic Arts Books, Alaska Northwest Books, and WestWinds Press—Graphic Arts publishes and distributes books that focus on lifestyle and place.

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 photographic books. These became known as "coffee table book

Coffee table book

A coffee table book is a hardcover book that is intended to sit on a coffee table or similar surface in an area where guests sit and are entertained, thus inspiring conversation or alleviating boredom. They tend to be oversized and of heavy construction, since there is no pressing need for...

s." Their first book in this format was the popular Oregon, a book of photographs by Ray Atkeson

Ray Atkeson

Ray Atkeson was a U.S. photographer best known for his landscape images, particularly of the American West....

, 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

Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...

n market.

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

Western United States

.The Western United States, commonly referred to as the American West or simply "the West," traditionally refers to the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. Because the U.S. expanded westward after its founding, the meaning of the West has evolved over time...

 titles and photography books.

In April 2006, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy

Chapter 11, Title 11, United States Code

Chapter 11 is a chapter of the United States Bankruptcy Code, which permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Chapter 11 bankruptcy is available to every business, whether organized as a corporation or sole proprietorship, and to individuals, although it is most...

. In October 2006, Ingram Content Group 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.