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If you are interested in artists’ books and zines be sure to visit the annual Fruitmarket Bookmarket, on this year February 14th and 15th, at Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, 1 minute from Waverley Station!
This is always a fantastic fair and a great opportunity to talk with book makers and artists.
Coming up in March, Wednesday 4th, will be the 10th annual ECA Bookmarks Bookfair at ECA Sculpture Court, another fantastic opportunity to buy artists’ books, zines and prints from ECA students and artists from further afield.
A view of the Sculpture Court during Bookmarks 2024
We all know that DIY zines are a brilliant way for communities to share knowledge and information. Here at ECA at the UoE we are very fortunate to have access to many online databases of primary source archive material, including zines. One such example is Power to the People: Counterculture, Social Movements, and the Alternative Press.
Power to the People showcases a range of ideas, initiatives, and social movements devoted to people-powered politics and organizing from the nineteenth to the twenty-first centuries. Ranging beyond a few specific movements, the archive paints a broad picture of the counterculture and many disparate organizations that represent this moment in modern Western history. Although the archive concentrates mainly on the United States and the United Kingdom, it also covers events and topics from around the globe.
The primary sources in Power to the People presents social history that highlights equity, diversity, and inclusion. The materials document issues of social justice and how attitudes about civil rights, gender equality, the environment, the government, and many of society’s institutions shifted dramatically to include citizen involvement, public welfare, and the planet’s health in the twentieth century. The archive presents a social history that highlights equity, diversity, and inclusion in materials created by the last generations that depended on primarily print communication, offering a unique reflection of the time before the growth of the internet and social media.
Alternative press publications throughout the archive represent anti-establishment and countercultural ideas and movements through art, satire, humour, and alternative lifestyles. Although these are often overlooked as vehicles for providing perspectives on social movements and countercultural ideas, they can have just as great an impact as mainstream social movements. The alternative press titles in Power to the People are unique, examining social issues, politics and government, sexuality, diversity, and more.
You can access Power to the People: Counterculture, Social Movements, and the Alternative Press via DiscoverEd, or through the primary source databases listed here.
We have a subject guide to zines and artists’ books at ECA Library, here.
Make your way to the ECA Sculpture Court at Lauriston campus Main Building from 1.00pm to 7.00pm to enjoy the annual ECA Bookmarks Bookfair! Your opportunity to buy prints, zines, artists’ books, cards, pin badges, t-shirts and other wonders made by our ECA Art and Design students, and friends from Scottish colleges and arts organisations.
Poster art by Rosie Wang, ECA Illustration student, rosieee_art on Insta…
We are very excited about today’s artists’ books and zines Bookmarks Bookfair, which will be open and free to attend from 1pm to 7pm, Wednesday 29th March 2023, at the ECA Sculpture Court in the Main Building.
This is a fantastic annual event organised by the School of Design and is a chance to meet and buy from our hugely talented art and design students, staff and friends, selling a range of zines, artists’ books, cards and prints.
You can get a free ticket on Eventbrite.
Are you interested in making and exploring the world of zines? We have a growing collection of zines within the ECA Library artists’ books collection! You can find them all on DiscoverEd.
Our collection includes works by Lesley Imgart, Sarah Sheard, “Zine a Month” duo Matt Swan and John Brown, and book artists at Good Press Gallery such as Eden Bo Dower, Johanna Hedva, Aki Hassan, and Isobel Neviazsky.
If you are interested in other collections and collectives, take a look at:
The Edinburgh Zine Library is a volunteer-run archive and reference library of contemporary zines.
The Queer Zine Library is a UK based diy mobile library volunteer collective celebrating radical LGBTQIA+ self publishing. You can find out more about the history of zines here.
Find out more about the zines at ECA Library by watching this talk on Media Hopper.
You might also be interested in our subject guide on Gender and Sexuality Studies
We also have an artists’ books and zines subject guide
If you are interested in all things Zine, you will be pleased to know that the Edinburgh Zine Fair 2021 takes place at the Drill Hall, Out of the Blue, 36 Dalmeny Street (just off Leith Walk) on Saturday 23rd October, 11.00am – 5.00pm.
The Edinburgh Zine Fair is brought to you by Typewronger Books
This will be a great opportunity to see and buy zines, and talk to their makers!
We love it when our talented students donate their top quality zines or artist’s books to the Library! Here are 3 fantastic examples by illustration students Sarah Sheard and Lesley Imgart:
