Printed Matter's Queer Zines: Review for FoRMATS

In honor of Formats X Guillaume Lavoie: QUEER and of Expozine 2013, we present to you Printer Matter’s Queer Zines. This limited, first edition catalog was created in 2008 to accompany an exhibition organized by Phil Aarons and AA Bronson collects a list of past, present, and rare zine content presented in alphabetical order. Offset-printed in duotone color, the design of this meaty publication (200+ pages) pays homage to early methods of print production significant to the emergence of underground newspapers of the 1960s that influenced the birth of queer zines and zine culture at large.

The catalog celebrates an era of DIY queer zines in which content is not only intellectually stimulating and deliciously deviant but also reminds us of the “cut and paste” quality of zine-making, as well as its ability to appropriate margins of mainstream society in order to revitalize the concept of community.

Raunchy illustrations + pictures, intimate stories + rants, a directory of zine archives, and an index of zine collectors around the world are just a few elements that animate the pages of Queer Zines. You will also find excerpts of interviews with queer zine pioneers such as GB Jones and Bruce LaBruce, as well as an insightful interview between the curators in which they discuss the queer voice in relation to the collaged aesthetic of home publishing vs. the refined production values of the current crop of queer zines.

Originally published on FoRMATS Facebook page: November 12th, 2013