For Books’ Sake Presents: Salford Zine Library Tour
On Saturday 22nd of October, I was one of the lucky few to attend the For Books’ Sake readers event at the Salford Zine Library Exhibition, with a guided tour and Q&A session with one of the founders of the collection, Craig John Barr.
Craig explained that he doesn’t take a curatorial attitude to the zines – if people send them, they’re included in the collection. It was fascinating to hear about the shifting nature of self-publishing; football zines for instance have moved online, with fewer now available in print, but in art and design – where the creating, binding and distribution of tangible, self-published work are part of the craft – the numbers are booming. We talked about perzines (personal zines), political manifestos photocopied and passed from hand to hand, sci-fi fanzines from the 1970s that acted as a printed (and slower) version of today’s online forums with letters and responses printed from one issue to the next, and some of the bigger publications that people may not know started at zines (Viz, i-D).
Every accessible wall exuded passion; the zines a magnitude of colours, shapes, and sizes. Each individual zine hung from a length of string, held in place with wooden pegs. I felt like a child in a candy shop, I couldn’t wait to try them all and I could tell by the eager look on the faces of the group that they felt the same.
With each one that is picked up there is an entirely new experience whether it be educational, such as Hello Vegan, which informs and instructs readers of how to become a healthy vegan; entertaining such as Jack Fallows’ The Gentleman Ghost, a satirical comic that treats the reader to the adventures of a ghost with a bowler hat and monocle; the purely random such as Animals Are Losers Too! (Eight Animal Versions of Myself, Plus One Cracka-ass) by Anna McGlynn, which consists of solely rough crayon drawings of several animals involving hilarious puns.
Accompanying the library is a film made up of short videos sent in by various contributors/creators of the zines talking about their own work, and why they choose to self publish. With the age of digital publication well and truly underway and the internet being the easiest and quickest way of sharing one’s work and thoughts with millions of others, I was touched by how fervently the people spoke about self publication. One creative in particular named Libby Scarlett claimed that there is nothing nicer than going into a book shop and buying a new book due to the aesthetics of the book itself; texture, images, smells, and how this is something she wants to incorporate into her zine A Selection of Letters from Project 3 Minutes.
For anyone (like myself) who hasn’t created their own zine before but is eager to do so, there is even a two minute demonstration mixed into the film on how to make your very own eight page zine from one piece of paper!
With more zines than he has space for (over 1400!), Craig has said that he is regularly swapping the display around so that all of the contributions he is sent get their chance to be in the gallery and read by others.
If you are a self publisher and want your zine to be part of the collection, send your work to:
Salford Zine Library
48 Landos Court
Manchester
M40 7WT
Email: salfordzinelibrary@gmail.com
With the promise of a new and inspiring discovery with each visit I am thankful that the exhibition runs until January 29th 2012, at Salford Museum and Art Gallery. I guarantee that one visit will not be enough.
The For Books’ Sake team were busy taking notes throughout the event, so keep your eyes peeled for future features on some of the amazing discoveries from the day!
Jessica Cooke
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