Visual Communication: Artists' Books, Zines & Alternative Publishing

A number of zines are held in the Library as a part of our Artists Books' Collection. See the Special Collections page for more information on this collection  

The Library also has lots of books on the history of zines and alternative press, as well as how to create zines; click here to see a selection.

The Artists' Books Collection, showing many different bindings, materials, ideas and interpretations of "the book", can be found in the brightly coloured filing cabinets on the ground floor of the Library. Click here to see the full collection in the Library Catalogue, alternatively use the search box below to find individual titles/artists.

Zines (pronounced 'zeen', short for magazine) are typically self-published, noncommercial, nonprofessional, non-profit, limited edition works that are often distributed by the creators themselves, but the term is used to refer to a wide range of material. They often have a DIY aesthetic, with a folded, stapled and photocopied appearance. Zines are often produced by persons of marginalized groups, and represent a diverse range of ideas, experiences and interests.

For instructions on how to make zines yourself, try the following guide:

Aspen Magazine
Online version of the innovative arts magazine,1965-1971. Each issue came in a customized box filled with booklets, phonograph recordings, posters and postcards, subverting the bound magazine format. 

Avant Garde
1968-1971. Magazine famed for its graphic design and gave birth to the typeface of the same name.

Blue Mountain
Ephemeral texts from 1848-1923: journals, magazines, manifestos, and other publications which underlay the emergence of modernity in Europe and the Americas, including Dadaist, Surrealist and Futurist publications.

Eros Magazine
1962. Short-lived American magazine, noted for its design. The focus of the magazine was on love and sex during the dawning of the Sexual Revolution. Folded following an obscenity lawsuit. Creators later established Avant Garde magazine.

Independent Voices
An open access digital collection of alternative press newspapers, magazines and journals, from 1950 to the present day.

Modernist Journals Project
Digital archive of modernist periodicals published from 1890 to 1922, including the archives of Blast.

Monoskop Avant-Garde and Modernist Magazines
Directory of online avant-garde and modernist magazines from around the world, from 1890 to 1945.

Pulp Magazines Project
Digital archive dedicated to the study and preservation of one of the twentieth century's most influential literary and artistic forms: the all-fiction pulpwood magazine.

Chapman University Feminist Zine Archive
Writings and artwork depicting feminism and women's issues in zines created at Chapman University.

Internet Archive Zines
Collection of digitised zines from various distros, made available by the non-profit Internet Archive. 

QZAP - Queer Zine Archive Project
Aims to preserve queer zines and make them available to researchers, historians, punks, and anyone else who has an interest DIY publishing. Hundreds of fully digitised zines. 

Papercut Virtual Library
Digital zine library on topics including but not limited to: politics, multimedia, DIY guides, queer & gender politics, feminism, race, class, environment fiction/poetry, and music.

POC Zine Project
Makes zines by POC (People of Colour) easier to find, distribute and share.

Sherwood Forest Virtual Zine Library
Independent media library focusing on zines and DIY culture. 

Small Science Collective
 A collaboration of artists, students, scientists that produces small zines and web comics on topics from ants to galaxies.

Zines on issuu
Although originally a print-only medium, zine publishers have started using issuu to distribute their work digitally.