Eleanor Vonne Brown
Eleanor Vonne Brown is an artist and educator who opened London bookshop and art space X Marks the Bökship in 2008. The space is currently closed but she continues to teach at on the Magazine Journalism and Publishing degree course at the London College of Communication.
We asked Eleanor to select a current magazine, an old magazine and one other item from her collection.
A new issue: Typical Girls #3
I picked up the latest issue of Typical Girls at the DIY Cultures fair at the Rich Mix Centre in the east-end last Sunday. It is an example of a new wave of professionally produced zines that are independently published and circulated around small-press fairs, bookshops and amongst friends and their respective scenes. DIY Cultures is an annual day festival with a zine fair, exhibitions, workshops and panel discussions by artists and activists exploring DIY practice.
Typical Girls is an alternative women’s magazine edited and designed by Chani Wisdom and Jamila Prows. It is a mix of art, photography, interviews and creative writing that in their own words ‘offers a positive platform where a range of women's experiences and perspectives are shared with equal gravity.’ The Generations issue poses the question ‘what defines our generation’ to activist groups, artists and performers. Female collectives reflect on how the current young generation differs from those before it, and how different generations can influence one another and interconnect. This issue includes interviews with Hollie Cook, Lydia Higginson, Otegha Uwagba, Lynette Nylander and Joey Yu.
An old issue: ‘Destroy All Monsters: Geisha This’
‘Destroy All Monsters: Geisha This’ is a compilation published in 1996 of the first six issues of the Destroy All Monsters magazine from 1975 to 1979.
Destroy All Monsters were an influential Detroit band formed by art students Mike Kelley, Jim Shaw, Niagara and filmmaker Cary Loren. Their zines were a visual assault of colour, collages, illustrations and different print processes including, riso, screen printing and photocopying. Geisha This faithfully reprints their punk graphic style and also has a flexi-vinyl record bound into it. I used to keep my copy of it in X Marks the Bökship with a big ‘not for sale’ sign on it, although people always wanted to buy it. A facsimile reprint of it was published by one of my favourite publishers, Primary Information in the 2011.
And another thing: Offprint Art Publishing Fair
This is the invite to the Offprint Art Publishing Fair that is happening in the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern this weekend. There will be 140 independent and experimental publishers in contemporary art, photography and graphic design selling books, magazines and zines.
Running alongside it is a program of launches and talks. If you want to know more about independent publishing, this is a good place to start.
Offprint Art Publishing Fair:
Friday 19 May 18 :00 – 22 :00
Saturday 20 May 12 :00 – 20 :00
Sunday 21 May 12 :00 – 18 :00