Zines, short for magazines, are self-published books or pamphlets. They have a DIY nature and can take many forms, though they are typically either folded from a single sheet or stapled to make them easier and faster to copy and distribute. Though zines can be about anything, they have historically leaned to personal narratives, original writing and poetry, fan culture, and radical, anti-establishment organizing.
Zines are the maverick inhabitants of publishing's Wild West, where the obsessional, the idiosyncratic and the wilfully obscure roam free across pages unbounded by the constraints of mainstream agendas. This book offers a highly-visual analysis of this phenomenon, assembled with expert fanaticism by the team of Pop theorists who created Highflyers and Scrawl. It showcases a huge, international range of current zines, put into context by historical examples from the hoardings of die-hard collectors.
Ari Marcopoulos is an inveterate maker of zines. This project collects in one volume for the first time a selection of zines by Marcopoulos, many never before released, providing a unique insight and overview into an essential part of this influential artist's daily practice.