the zine scene

The winning zines in the 8th Annual Washington State Zine Contest have been announced and you can see the list here. They will be digitized and available online soon, but meanwhile here are a few places you can see and learn about zines now, in person and/or online, in no particular order:

• The Library of Congress
• The Seattle Public Library ZAPP Zine Collection
• Olympia Timberland Library
• the zine librarians interest group
• Los Angeles Public Library
• Papercut Zine Library
• zines on Issuu

Make some zines this summer and add your work to one or more of these collections!

and speaking of books…

Have you seen the Artist’s Book Collection at Bainbridge Island Museum of Art? BIMA’s Sherry Grover Gallery is home to more than 1,300 artist-made books, with the exhibit changing three times each year.

A new exhibit, A to Zine, will open tomorrow, July 1, 2022, and continue through October 9, 2022.

In addition to the work on view in the gallery and other exhibits and events, BIMA has three video collections that offer further insight into the book artists and their work: Artist’s Books Unshelved, Open Book Tours Video Library, and Artist’s Books Lectures & Panels Video Library.

Bainbridge Island Museum of Art is open daily, 10:00am to 5:00pm, and admission is free!

Seattle Art Book Fair

The Seattle Art Book Fair presents Makeready 2021, a free virtual event taking place over three weekends to examine the stages of the book-making process. The sessions, May 14-15, May 21-22, and May 28-29, will feature over 35 artists, designers, printers, and publishers in a series of conversations, studio visits, and workshops that explore the process of making an art book from start to finish. Makeready speakers will share a wide variety of work — from personal zines to one-of-a-kind artists’ books; from trade art/literary books to contemporary art editions. Learn more and register.

looking at books

The University of Washington Libraries Book Arts & Rare Book Collections is home to more than 40,000 titles not found in the regular Libraries stacks. Dating from the 11th century to the 21st, the 21,000-strong Book Arts Collection includes an extensive and growing number of artist-made and poetry books.

Materials are limited to in-library use and some require an appointment. For information, visit the website, call Special Collections at 206-543-1929, and see photographs of a few artist-made books on Atlas Obscura.

book arts

Okay, before you get too excited, the available slots for literary artists/writers are already full. But if The Collaboratory rings your chimes, you can get on a mailing list in case of cancellations and be notified when the next round of signups begins.

Brought to you by the geniuses at Container (Jenni B. Baker and Douglas Luman), The Collaboratory is a new creative accelerator that pairs literary and visual artists to collaborate on an artist’s book or text object. The theme for the pilot cohort is BREACHES.

Over the course of 13 weeks (August 13-November 11), Collaboratory members will participate in a guided series of virtual activities where they’ll get to know their assigned partner, collectively generate a pool of project ideas, prototype their text object’s design and text, and deliver and showcase their work virtually. Select Collaboratory members will also be invited to sell their completed objects through Container’s online marketplace.

No prior book arts experience is required: they’re looking for folks who want to learn as they go and who get excited by experimentation. For the pilot cohort, participation is limited to a total of 20 participants: 10 visual artists and 10 literary artists. The participant fee is $29. Enrollment is open through July 31, or until all of the cohort spots are filled.

For more information, including the 13-week agenda, details on the theme, and FAQs, visit the Collaboratory home page.

Book launch tonight at Hugo House

Poet Molly Tenenbaum and artist Ellen Ziegler have collaborated on a 42-page artist’s book, Exercises to Free the Tongue, produced by Paper Hammer and supported by grants from Artist Trust and 4Culture. Illuminated with historic images and ephemera from Molly’s grandparents, ventriloquists on the vaudeville circuit in the early 1900s, this book of poems plays with ventriloquial metaphors of voice and breath. A long time in the works, this is a book to celebrate.

This evening, Wednesday, November 5, 2014, at Hugo House in Seattle, the authors will do exactly that, with a poetry reading, ventriloquial sing-alongs, videos of great vents past and present, plus all the essentials of a celebratory book launch. Release your inner ventriloquist, or at least your inner vaudevillian. (And don’t move your lips.)