Having recently published a book that I think fits into what you describe as a third space I’m interested in this too. I do feel very aligned with Amelia of Anemone’s definition of artist publishing but that feels like it is more about the process than the end result.
The book I made is my artwork but I had it commercially short-run printed and saddle-stitched. I wouldn’t call it a zine but maybe a chapbook or booklet.
Agreed, I feel like I'm mostly putting words to the process / method rather than the end result when talking about artist publishing -- locating ourselves in doing an activity and a mindset, not a particular end product. It feels a little clunky / awkward feeling to call the objects being made "artist publications" -- as a description for individual objects you can hand someone, vs a wider description of process and outcomes.
And also agree that the scope for what I'd consider artist publishing makes a wider variety of things than what India is talking about here with these formats/topics/methods. Also dearly want a name for these 'secret third thing' types of published objects that we're all so interested in making and reading and talking about! They feel like they've (often) escaped the category of zines and aren't (necessarily) artist books either, and aren't (necessarily) comics. "Small press publications" also doesn't work for it; putting "small" or "press" doesn't quite capture the core of what makes them special. Hmmmmm....
Such a great topic to discuss! I agree it’d be so helpful to have an in between word—I feel like much of what I see at art book fairs nowadays is in this third space. Small artist publications perhaps?
I love the third thing in the goldilocks sense of "just right" or a "third place"(the concept of a place you feel at home that is neither work/school nor your house). But I do not have a name for these things. I call my publication a "newspaper". But don't know what to call other books I make that aren't comics.
In the early era of printing presses, there was an explosion of street printers, for lack of a better word—ballads and broadsheets and tracts and caricatures that gave voice to folk traditions in song and story and folkways, as well as political dissent. It feels like this is like that
Having recently published a book that I think fits into what you describe as a third space I’m interested in this too. I do feel very aligned with Amelia of Anemone’s definition of artist publishing but that feels like it is more about the process than the end result.
The book I made is my artwork but I had it commercially short-run printed and saddle-stitched. I wouldn’t call it a zine but maybe a chapbook or booklet.
Agreed, I feel like I'm mostly putting words to the process / method rather than the end result when talking about artist publishing -- locating ourselves in doing an activity and a mindset, not a particular end product. It feels a little clunky / awkward feeling to call the objects being made "artist publications" -- as a description for individual objects you can hand someone, vs a wider description of process and outcomes.
And also agree that the scope for what I'd consider artist publishing makes a wider variety of things than what India is talking about here with these formats/topics/methods. Also dearly want a name for these 'secret third thing' types of published objects that we're all so interested in making and reading and talking about! They feel like they've (often) escaped the category of zines and aren't (necessarily) artist books either, and aren't (necessarily) comics. "Small press publications" also doesn't work for it; putting "small" or "press" doesn't quite capture the core of what makes them special. Hmmmmm....
Trade Zines
Hand-Books
Ana-logs (like blogs, captain’s logs)
Artscripts / Artpubs / Artmanacs / Art Journals
Makerbooks (Like chapbooks)
Such a great topic to discuss! I agree it’d be so helpful to have an in between word—I feel like much of what I see at art book fairs nowadays is in this third space. Small artist publications perhaps?
I love the third thing in the goldilocks sense of "just right" or a "third place"(the concept of a place you feel at home that is neither work/school nor your house). But I do not have a name for these things. I call my publication a "newspaper". But don't know what to call other books I make that aren't comics.
Thank you for articulating this so well. I feel simultaneously overdressed and underdressed at zine fests.
I call mine Mini Books (not quite a zine, not quite an artists book, but a mini book full of art and sometimes small stories)
In the early era of printing presses, there was an explosion of street printers, for lack of a better word—ballads and broadsheets and tracts and caricatures that gave voice to folk traditions in song and story and folkways, as well as political dissent. It feels like this is like that