🪸 notes on artist publishing 🍄
building a bunch of bookshelves, things to do this month in Seattle
I finished Notes On Artist Publishing. As I was drafting it (which I wrote about last month) it grew big enough that I split it into three parts, so two more books coming later. The cover ended up with a collage of seaweed pressings from a scanned book from the 1850s. This one is 48 pages!
I also finished something I started when we were in CDMX this winter!
Words for the Print Studio / Palabras del Taller de Impresión is a drawing I made at S.A.R.A (Sociedad Anónima de Reproducción Autogestiva) in Tlalpan, in collaboration with Lucía Alarcón. It’s a tiny pamphlet (just a sheet of paper folded in half) with translations of lots of the printshop and bookmaking and art technical terms and slang. I’ll have them at Seattle Art Book Fair, and rumor has it that there might be a S.A.R.A. edition in different colors at some point too. :)
First copies of both release at Seattle Art Book Fair this weekend! Come say hello to us if you’re there!
You can get a copy of Notes on Artist Publishing on the Riso Bookstore!
It will ship out next week, and as a thank you for orders before Monday 5/13/24, we’ll also throw in a copy of Words for the Print Studio / Palabras del Taller de Impresión since it isn’t listed online yet.
(If you’re not a print person or don’t want to pay for international shipping, in the next newsletter I’ll send out ways to get a digital copy of Notes on Artist Publishing.)
Climate Emergency Reading Room & Community Altar
Variable West did a q&a with us and Alex about the Climate Emergency Reading Room & Community Altar! We talked about books and building community, the climate crisis, creating shared spaces and resources… plus a little about Spectrolite, tips for getting started risograph printing in Seattle, and riso animation!
Come find it on the main stage this weekend at Seattle Art Book Fair (more details about the fair below!) We’ve been pulling books and zines from our personal library, and Alex’s, and collecting submissions from fair attendees. So far there are over 125 books / zines / pamphlets to read. And I’m so excited for everyone to see the community altar and chaekgeori that Alex made, and the natural dyed, quilted textile by Crescent Calimpong. We’re installing it in a few hours from now, hope to see you there!
Here are a few pictures of making the shelving — it will all be assembled into four big a-frames. Tom Eykemans collected nine huge 4x4 and 4x5’ plywood pieces for us, Granite Calimpong lent us his truck to haul them.
A very collaborative week: We spent a lot of time painting and sanding and cutting and drilling, and printing and designing with Alex. Jackson Barnes let us swing by to use the Living Room Press guillotine to cut all the interiors and covers down. And we got to hang out at RECC while printing and binding.
I traded some editing time with Robert Baxter, and he went through Notes on Artist Publishing for me, while I edited his new Risograph Maintenance Tutorial. It’s all about how to run and care for and repair risographs, with tons of drawings of how the internal modules and parts work, and clear explanations. Kind of a theory of mind of how a riso works and thinks and senses, too.
We hit the full year of travel mark and I hadn’t printed any of my own work since November (!!) so it was really good to get back to the riso and booklet maker. Love those machines. Love our riso friends. Love Seattle.
Revisited this old post of ours with an annotated screenshot of the spreadsheets handling the book layout and page planning for How to Sew Clothes. From the archives!!
The case for shedding by Kristina Thorne (reflections on PCT hiking from a friend we met last summer while on the trail!)
America, Your Food Is So Gay (2014 lucky peach)
Non-Pacific Northwesters, you may stop reading here. Thank you, have a wonderful day.
MARK YOUR CALENDARS, SEATTLE
Seattle / PNW crew: There’s so much good (and free) stuff happening at Seattle Art Book Fair, so I wanted to highlight some of the programming I’m most excited about.
Saturday, May 11
Seattle Art Book Fair Hours 11am–6pm (free, at Washington Hall, 153 14th Ave, Seattle, WA 98122)
⭐ Knust: The Riso Print Pioneers (documentary, 30 min.) — is showing Saturday at 11:15am and Sunday at 2pm
⭐ 4pm — Organizing Power: Unionizing for Arts Workers
⭐ AFTER PARTY: SABF + ART BOOK CLUB — 6–8PM at The Hideout (1005 Boren Ave, Seattle)
1-7pm(ish) — unrelated to the fair but very exciting: SWITCHBACK vintage pop-up by Sarah Stephens, at Windthrow ‘s shop on Capitol Hill. Free coffee from Elm!
Sunday, May 12
Seattle Art Book Fair Hours 11am–5pm
⭐ 12pm — Own The Means of Production and Share It: Resource Pooling for Independent Publishers
⭐ 2:30pm — Photography, Fauxtography, & The Photographic Image In Risograph Printing Organized by Zach Clark, National Monument Press with Amelia Greenhall, ANEMONE; Erica Wilk, Moniker Press; and Carlos Gabaldon, Risolana — See me there and ask us all your riso-photo questions!
And at the end of the month, we’re excited for RECC’s One Year Anniversary Celebration Market Monday May 27th 11 AM - 3 PM at 800 S. Weller St Suite 201. And Paper Press Punch and RECC’s summer risograph and art class workshop lineups look awesome too.
Ok, hope to see you at the fair! Please say hello and introduce yourselves!
-Amelia (+ Adam says hello too!)
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