Self Published Zines and Journals of the Month
Oscar Wilde once said 'In old days books were written by men of letters and read by the public. Nowadays books are written by the public and read by nobody.' We at the ICA Bookshop have decided to try to rectify this by selecting the best self-published Zines and Journals we discover every month. Here's a selection of the cream of our recent crop.
Langdon Olgar #2
Langdon Olgar is the publication from Hollaback LDN, the feminist collective exposing the realities of street harassment and providing a platform to share experiences and fight back. With contributions from the likes of Tavi Gevinson and Barbara Hammer this edition collects rants, articles and essays on the infantilization of women in media representation, reflections on rape crisis centres in east london, pregnancy & abjection and the responsibility of men in dealing with harassment, plus much more. It’s all wrapped up in a beautifully designed full-colour risographed booklet and is a must read for all genders.
Stereoscope: The Everyday Issue
What happens when nothing happens? This is question posed by Stereoscope and forms the basis for their fourth issue. A mixture of contemporary photography and selections from St Andrews University’s special collections as well as essays related to photographic representations of the everyday and the work of photographers of the quotidian Martin Parr and Wolfgang Tillmans – Stereoscope explores the banality and beauty of when we transfer our everyday activities from private to public.
Arc #17.1
The latest edition of the Royal College of Arts in-house journal explores aspects of the rural and regional. Taking its starting point as the coincidental pairing in 1940 of evacuated Royal College of Art students and Dadaist Kurt Schwitters when they both happened to end up in the same small Lake District village, the editors seize the chance to embark on a pilgrimage to Ambleside, combining a search for the RCA bunker with a stint at a Schwitters conference. The writing and work inside draws on this shift to the rural and the specific influence of Ambleside’s landscape as an opposite to the cacophony of the city. Featuring work from Laure Prouvost and John Akomfrah, as well as writing from Brian Dillon & current students Jack Brindley, Alice Butler and Nicholas Johnson. It also has very nice black staples.
SALT. #2
Salt is a journal of feminism and contemporary art and as you can tell from the dark green plastic sheath it's wrapped up in, this issue focuses on transparency. How can you retain clarity when speaking a language not your mother tongue? How can the hijabs covering of the female body liberate or oppress depending on your location & can this veiling act as a political statement against the state and/or religion? Is selling your underwear online the purest form of immaterial/affective labour? And in what way does the transparent background of a .png file change how post net-art and tumblr based gifs read as artwork? All is revealed underneath the green sheath.
Beuys
Just when you thought it was safe to go back, what, near the magazine rack? Artist and writer Michael Crowe reproduces the screenplay of Jaws with all mention of sharks replaced with conceptual artist Joseph Beuys. A thrill from start to finish, you'll never look at Jaws, or Beuys work in the same light again.
All of these are available to purchase in the ICA Bookshop, either online or in person. Please visit us to see our full range of Zines and Self Published material.
Peter Willis
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Tagged with: Arc, Beuys, ICA Bookshop, Langdon Olgar, Michael Crowe, Peter Willis, Salt, Self Published Zines and Journals of the Month, Self Pusblished, Stereoscope, zines
