We love making publications but the labor of creating and printing is only part of the work. The other big part involves ushering these physical objects into the world and into the hands of readers who will meaningfully incorporate them in their lives and share them with others.
To this end, we’ve been participating in a lot of publishing events lately and we have three more to announce. We didn’t even get a chance to tell you about Milwaukee Zine Fest in the last newsletter. That was another event we took part in and it was great. It was held in the main branch of the Milwaukee Public Library. Organizing zine fests in libraries is a stroke of genius. In addition to drawing both regular library patrons and zine fest guests, libraries usually already have all the infrastructure needed to host a fair—space, tables and chairs, bathrooms and water fountains, ADA-compliant facilities, and easy to get to locations—which lowers the cost of participation to very little. We’d love to see more cities put their public libraries to use in this way. At the end of the month we’ll head to Madison for the annual Madison Print & Resist fair which also takes place in a fantastic public library.
Way back in 2001 the artist Tara Zanzig participated in Temporary Services' The Library Project, where we quietly placed 100 books by artists and others in Chicago’s Harold Washington Library Center (without telling the library in advance). We recently reconnected with Tara at a zine fest and she invited us to have a table in conjunction with her exhibit at Green Eye Lounge in Chicago (2403 W. Homer Street). On May 3rd, from 7-11 PM we’ll be selling our work at the bar.
We’ll also return to the Philadelphia Art Book Fair on June 2 and 3 at the 23rd Street Armory so we hope to see you there too, if you happen to live in Marc’s hometown.
In addition to taking part in book fairs—in libraries and everywhere else—we are extra excited to announce that our work will now be available in three more library collections.
Texas State University in San Marcos, TX, through the coordination of professor Mark Menjivar, has acquired over fifty publications by Temporary Services and Half Letter Press, as well as numerous Temporary Services posters and other pieces of ephemera. Additionally, the library has also added large amounts of printed material from Public Collectors (Marc’s other project) and Breakdown Break Down Press (Brett’s other imprint). Look for about 100 items to be joining the library’s Special Collections there very soon.
The University of Chicagos’ Regenstein Library has a Special Collection, and it is filled with zines originating in Chicago. While this collection already held a number of examples of our work, they just added over 20 more publications from our various endeavors. While most of the library is not open to the public, happily, Special Collections is.
Recently, Brett was in St. Louis for a residency at The Luminary with his wife Bonnie Fortune. While there, he used the opportunity to help grow their library. You can now find around 50 of our publications in that collection, and some of our titles are in their well curated store.
—Brett & Marc
