Part 1: Research Task: Artists books and fanzines

The Brief

Browse the American based Smithsonian Libraries’ Artist Book archive to identify
books that you find interesting or questions the notion of the book in some way.
https://library.si.edu/collection/artists-books

Explore fanzines in more depth by reading Teal Trigg’s chapter Definitions and
early days (pages 6–43) from her book Fanzines: A do-it-yourself revolution (2010).

Document visual examples of work you find interesting with annotations in your
learning log. You’ll be using some of this research in your first assignment.

My Findings:

When I first saw this research point and thought about artists books and fanzines I was thinking inside the box that I would be researching roughly put together booklets in booklet form. What I have found though is that a lot of the artists books and fan zines are sensory and use a lot of creative mediums and mixed media such as:

Hand drawn art, Typography, Printmaking, screen printing, Lino printing, photography, poetry, experimental narratives, Graphic Design, pop-up book design, laser cutting, 3D/mechanisms, Textiles (silk printing, Batik), tapes/washi tapes, Risograph and zines made out of cardboard packaging and even vinyl records!

I also watched the videos as to how they are printed out, what medium they are printed on and how they are put together. I thought that most zines would be created and then all the final pages be photocopied to be printed off onto paper but the ones I watched in the videos were made all kinds of ways. There was one on there that used plastic CD sleeves sewn together to create the pages of their zine.

It showed on the video them using a sewing machine to stitch their vines together down the middle of the book inside or using a long armed stapler. (Staples though for a big production run could be quite costly so I understand why they would stitch the pages together). Stitching pages together is an art form in itself; I remember when I was at college we had a lesson in book binding- it was 1) to try and open our creative minds to making a unique portfolio of our own work at the time! (pre-digital era!) and 2) for a book we had to create about Morocco! The way we bound the spine was by hand with a needle and thread and then added a rigid spine over the top to further secure it.

I don’t have a close up of the stitching I did on this book of mine at the time but I do have a couple of photos for it just for a laugh!… (I just hope my work has improved from them days!! :D)

The zine community is a lot bigger than I thought too; the DIY zine movement consists of zine readings, zine workshops and zine fests. I watched some YouTube videos which featured a few zine fests and workshops where students collaborated and created their own zines together. There is also reading events too mainly held at bookshops where people show up to promote and read out pages from their zines for people to hear.

I was interested as to whether there was any Zine fests in the UK and there is a main one in London but there is also one near me in Lincoln which is predicted to happen in February 2022 providing on the Covid restrictions. It would be interesting to attend this potentially to get some research for this course.

From watching the videos on YouTube I was able to pick some names out of people with blogs to potentially look into: Jessicka Addams who is in a punk band and writes a zine called “After grrl” which explores feminist issues. Then there is Kathleen Hanna a member of Bikini Kill; the American punk rock band formed in Olympia, Washington, in October 1990. The group consists of singer and songwriter Kathleen Hanna, guitarist Billy Karren, bassist Kathi Wilcox, and drummer Tobi Vail. The band pioneered the riot grrrl movement, with radical feminist lyrics and fiery performances. Their music is characteristically abrasive and hardcore-influenced.

I also watched some YouTube videos by Esther Watson and Mark Todd who are a dynamic duo who teach zine making in group sessions and who have also written a book called “Whatcha Mean, What’s a Zine?: The Art of Making Zines and Mini Comics”. There was also a lady called Taylor Yates who created a zine called Selfish but when I look her up on Google I don’t think this zine is still in existence. I found some other artists and their zines too: dirtyliketheweeds.com (Doodledaze), @monsteryandme, @iam_aureliajiang and “love is strange” by Elize Strydom.

I also wanted to research typographic zines too as Typography is an area of interest of mine and also because one of my favourite books is a zine made by an influential new designer called Roy Cranston; he designed a poster a day for a year a couple of years ago and from that he became recognised as a designer to look out for! He designed limited copies of a zine featuring his best posters from the year and a bit of information about them. It is one of my favourite books to look at when I need inspiration:

https://roycranston.com/

https://works.studio/store/zine-02

https://cancanpress.bigcartel.com/product/similar-high-hopes-presale

Pinterest Research:

I then decided to go onto Pinterest and see what I could find on there. On there I also found some typographical zines very similar to Roy Cranston’s by an artist called Sophia Clausse:

I really like the experimental style of these designs.

I created a new board called “Artists books and zines” and started finding zines that stood out to me and grabbed my attention.

Etsy Research:

11/01/2022 – I also had a look on Etsy to see if I could browse and purchase a couple of zines to read, stick in my learning log and to give me a feel for what they are all about and what mediums and materials the artists use to produce them. I found 2 very different ones that caught my eye and which also got good reviews from Etsy customers. One is called Charm by a girl called Charlotte with her small company Zines by Charm:

“I’m so ugly, make me pretty”
issue 004 of charm zine is about how the media affects self image, especially in young women.
22 pages of submitted art, poetry, playlists and more!“

I am guessing that the artist Charlotte is quite a young, influenced girl and she is writing her zine as a personal piece about the insecurities around growing up in modern day society that is so led by social media, pop culture, celebrities and appearances. As a woman now in my mid-thirties, I know what it was like to grow up without having social media, growing up as a teenager I never had self image issues. It is a subject that has been brought to my attention though in recent years because of working within a secondary school and dealing with the pressures and insecurities that teenagers go through growing up today. I think I would find it interesting to read further a more creative approach to this subject. Charlotte has made the cover in a Punk style (it also reminds me of the Burn Book out of the Mean Girls film). I can see that she has printed it onto glossy printer paper and the massive border on the front cover to me suggests she has made her zine without the use of design software and all handmade and scanned in.

I bought a second zine from an artist called Jonathan, his zine is very different to the one that I purchased from Charlotte:

Jonathans zines seem to be influenced by Graphic Design and Abstract Art. The cover of the zine attracted my attention and intrigued me as to what the zine may be all about with the catchy, playful title. Again, the zine had positive reviews from his Etsy customers. I am intrigued by how he has put his zine together and by how it is presented in its plastic protective cover.

I shall report back further when the zines arrive in the post and when I have properly read them.

‘You Could Be More As You Are’ is an A5 zine that documents my work output during October & November 2020.“

14/01/2022– An update on Jonathans zine which arrived in the post yesterday! – My initial thoughts of the zine were that it is very professional, well thought out and a lot of time and pride has been taken in it. It is not like a typical fan zine in the fact it is not of a “cut and paste” approach. It has all been meticulously created in digital in design software. It is by far a more sophisticated zine. The handwritten thank you note and free promotional postcard are a nice finishing touch to the order! The paper that was used for the inside pages (the guts) gives the zine a luxurious, modern feel and the front cover which is a heavy card holds the zine together well and compliments the inside pages. I particularly like how he has written on the back cover of the zine what his zine is all about, the price and even the attention to detail to share what card he is printing on; Nettuno is an Italian luxurious, textured card. I feel like I would want to create a more luxurious zine than one that just uses copier paper.

As I open the inside of the zine I am greeted by the artists signature and the print number that my zine is, mine is 25 of a limited run of 40. There is a short blurb explaining what the zine is about again and explaining what mediums he used in his work and what it represents to him. I would have liked to have seen a bit more writing and notes in his zine just to talk through certain pieces that meant the most to him maybe and what the thought process was behind certain pieces. His work comes across very abstract and he leaves it very much to the readers discretion as to what they interpret the work to be and represent; I have struggled to understand it. Jonathans zine is all photographs of his work but there are also actual photographs which he has taken around his house or studio.

It has been helpful to see Jonathans zine, I have taken inspiration from his signature, the print run number, mentioning what medium he is printing on, the plastic cover to protect the zine, the luxurious paper he uses and the free promotional items.

I shall wait now for Charlottes zine to arrive..

19/01/2022 – Charlottes Zine arrived!

I might have to admit that I massively underestimated Charlotte and her zine! – Don’t judge a book…!

Her zine was actually the most helpful to look at and to draw inspiration from. There is a lot of creativity, love and care been put into this zine and I love that is is all from the “cut n paste” style. From having a look at her Instagram page she has a lot of followers who follow the zine and help contribute to it (she calls for contributors for her zine by posting ads on Instagram) this zine features a lot of contributed pieces from fellow artists about issues that relate to the zine subject (female self image) related posts.

This zine differs from the one that Jonathan designed and made because it contains all kinds of creative media. There is as much writing in this piece as what there is imagery. It also has a contents page, issue number and links to her social media which helped me to find her, see all of her other stuff and find other zines that relate to her similar work.

I love how all of her zine is handmade with collages, stickers, personal handwriting, photographs, washi tape (which she sealed the envelope with as well actually!) and then all professionally printed and staple finished. I like the finishing touch of her also including a free sticker and a business card to promote herself further.

Out of all the zines I have purchased I think Charlottes is my favourite.

Magazine Heaven – zines

As well as Etsy I decided any excuse to go and have a look in Magazine Heaven at Rushden Lakes was alright with me! As I have written in previous posts for various assignments I love looking around Magazine Heaven.. there is just so much variety! There is a magazine for just about everything! I looked on their website before I went to see if they sold any zines.. and they did!

Me and my fiance were scouring the shelves for the ones I found and taking sneaky pics of them to document on my blog! I did purchase a few of the ones that looked interesting though to keep and use for reference when designing my own zine.

Here are some close up pages of the ones we found:

The ones I decided to purchase were “Scorchin” and “Bright“.

Scorchin is a nostalgic zine reflecting on 00s and 90s trends.. as a child of the 90s I decided to purchase this to go back into time and relive my youth:

The idea for Scorchin is a good idea but it’s not quite hit the spot for me! – I feel like this magazine has been designed and written by people born in the early 00s and growing up in the late 00s because the content inside is reflective of the 90s and 00s era but not quite how I remember it!- There is a lot of emphasis on Bratz dolls; these were popular in the late 00s by the likes of my younger sister who was a young child for the majority of the 00s! There is a lot of fun things inside this magazine but a lot that I can’t relate to. I like the idea of the free poster and stickers though – again, it is based upon Bratz dolls so is completely irrelevant to me – but it adds a nice touch to the zine

The look of the zine does remind me of an early colour printed word processed document, designed using word art and the funky backgrounds etc! It does have an aged, retro feel to it! The typefaces used are very computerised which is nostalgic to y2k. The zine is glossy and overall professionally put together. To be sold in a high street shop it must be quite popular and have some money behind it to be able to have it professionally printed.

The next zine I bought was called Bright. I brought Bright because it is an animal friendly vegan publication, I am vegetarian but strongly agree with animal rights so decided to give it a go!

I bought 3 versions of this zine; the first 2 copies were earlier publications. The first one being matte paper throughout and a cardboard cover. The second copy was a bit more advanced and used glossy paper inside and the most recent copy I bought had more or less become a small book. It had a spine and was professionally printed and bound; this shows that the publication is taken well by the general public, well enough for there to be more money spent on the publications on improving them and making them better. There is a section within the publication where readers send in their letters and collage artwork; this reminds me of the cut and paste approach.

All in all it was a nice excuse to use “research” to have an afternoon out!

The brief also asked that we browse the American based Smithsonian Libraries’ Artist book archive to identify books that we find interesting or question the notion of the typical book…

I am not a fan of the website, unless you know specifically what you are searching for you have to browse absolutely everything! There are long lists in alphabetical order of artists but not necessarily photos of their work next to it which involves having to click on every artist to get a glimpse of their work. I much preferred to look at the zines I found online as reference instead.

From first glance at the slideshow on the website (which was a bit more helpful showing artists work!) the work that I saw was very interactive. It makes us question the traditional book; can a book merely be a metaphorical window to a story. There was a lot of 3D books creations! Some of the designs were pretty much a box book filled with items (a collection inside a collection!) There are concertina books, pop-up books, books in the form of a passport and even a book that was designed and made into an old camera- you have to look through the lens to see the content on the inside.