A bountiful collection of zines is now available for perusing after Gallery 5 opened a new independent zine library as a permanent addition to their upstairs gallery space.
A bountiful collection of zines is now available for perusing after Gallery 5 opened a new independent zine library as a permanent addition to their upstairs gallery space.
“This is something that I think Richmond is really ready for, and has been for a long time,” said Gallery 5 Programming Director Claude Marin Dustin Fenton as we sat outside their nearby Jackson Ward apartment.
Zines and small press magazines have long been the preferred method for disseminating information and ideas in independent-minded circles. Although the alternative landscape has changed with the growth of the internet and blogging, zines have remained, and as far as Richmond is concerned, they’re not going anywhere soon.
From the left: Celina Williams and Claude Marin Dustin Fenton
“More people are getting interested in it, and if they’re not making zines, they’re collecting zines, they wanna read zines,” Fenton continued.
Cataloguing genres and topics from comics to scene reports to longform personal essays, zines are handcrafted self-publications more often than not made at expense to the author or artist. The movement is partially as an outgrowth of the independent comics scene of the 80s, as well as the small press alternative magazines of the 1950s.
Some of their early appeal, according to writer and former RVA Magazine editor Drew Necci, was due to their focus on local culture and individual experience.
“Zines tend to prioritize the lived experience of the creators over focus on more mainstream or widely-publicized art,” she said. “people feel like they’re reading media that relates to their lives in a more direct way than anything they might come across on their favorite million-hit-per-week website or network television show.”
It’s perhaps a little surprising that zine-making has sustained its foothold despite the prominence of more modern formats, self-publishing and social media, as well as the boom of the personal essay.
Although the internet has certainly taken some of the space that zines once occupied, there’s still something appealing about the permanence of a zine. Necci adds, “zines do offer an opportunity to leave something behind that can be picked up years later, and I’m starting to see more people making zines for that reason.”
It doesn’t hurt that making a zine is easy even for a newcomer, too. According to Fenton.
“It’s an art form that is really accessible to people.”
“If you have something you want to get out there, you can just make a bunch of photocopies–it’s really easy, it’s something that anybody can do,” they said.
Zines’ accessibility to a diverse range of people has always appealed to Fenton, and they had toyed with the idea of starting a Richmond zine library for quite a while before they started making concrete plans with Richmond Zine Fest co-organizer and librarian Celina Williams.
Knowing Williams’ background, both with Richmond Zine Fest and with Virginia Commonwealth University’s special collections, Fenton approached Williams about the project.
“Having a zine space or shop has always been a baby dream, so I was excited when [they] reached out to me about collaborating,” Williams said.
The pair worked throughout the late spring and summer to brainstorm, gain Gallery 5 board approval for the use of the space, and most importantly, build a cache of zines.
Currently, Fenton and Williams have grown the collection to nearly a thousand zines, pulling from donations, purchases for the library and their own personal collections. Both wanted to ensure that the collection was not only representative of the local culture, but representative of a variety of genres and voices.
“Our aim is to have the largest collection that we possibly can,” Fenton said.
“We want a variety of zines and topics and not be overwhelmingly skewed to one particular zine genre,” Williams said. The permanent collection includes zines concerning topics like feminism, gender and sexuality, D.I.Y., politics and music.
Their goal is to have an extensive archive and back catalogue of diverse zines. However, the collection will never be fully displayed at any one time. Zines will rotate in conjunction with library art installations and showcases for particular zinesters (or artist-zinemakers), though the archive will still be available to any patron interested in a particular topic, author or genre.
The Richmond Independent Zine Library (or RIZL) opened this past week with a opening display included an exhibit devoted to local Richmond comic and zine publisher Clown Kisses.
The space, cozily outfitted with a couch, chairs and string lights, also includes a zine-making station complete with copier. Aspiring zinesters can pull inspiration from zines in the library and copy either directly from the zines or create their own zine page.
During the opening, patrons were encouraged to create their own zine pages centered around the library for a commemorative zine to be sold at zine fest the following weekend. Using stacks of old magazines and their own imaginations, a slowly growing crowd of zine aficionados came to add their pages to a stack saved for later collating by Fenton.
Patrons quietly chatted and paged through zines whose topics went from silly to serious, with a few tongue-in-cheek displays (sometimes literally tongue-in-cheek, as in one zine case’s, which was a short comic rundown on how to kiss).
Later in the evening, Raven Mack, a zinemaker, artist and poet from Central Virginia known for his Confederate Mack zines, spoke about the impact zinemaking had on his life, from helping shape his perspective to helping him eventually meet his spouse.
The night closed with Mack performing an induction ceremony for the space, ringing in what Williams and Fenton hope to be a zine-filled future in Richmond.
“Anything I can do to help people get their voices out there and create a safer, inclusive space to discover and read zines, I’ll do it,” Williams said. “I’m not the only person prioritizing these voices, and I feel very fortunate to be in Richmond right now when there is a lot more energy and support for P.O.C., LGBTQ and D.I.Y. spaces.”
RIZL’s next themed display in October will center art from local oddities shop Rest in Pieces, featuring zines having to do with death, Halloween, and the macabre.
The library’s operating hours are Wednesdays from 4pm to 10pm, and Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 11am-5pm. Zine donations are accepted and encouraged.
Check out Raven Mack’s work at rojonekku.com
Donate to Gallery5 (and RIZL) at gallery5arts.org
