“To Thine Own Self Be True”

Behind tabletops of zines in all shapes, sizes and content, zinesters have been celebrating their DIY, make-your-own-culture ethic in small press events all over the world. The maxim from Shakespeare, “To Thine Own Self Be True”, aptly overhangs this year’s International Alternative Press Festival that was held in Holborn over the last weekend.

I arrive at Conway Hall at 3pm – late – and find myself in a room so packed I was momentarily unsure of how to get through the crowd to see the zines. As I squeezed through, I saw some cool illustrations from The Fancy Butcher, picked up a free copy of “A Post-Fordist Struggle” from one of South London Radical History Group, Past Tense, and a postcard by WassinkLundgren – a pair of visual artists doing some really good collaborative work out of Beijing and London.

Also saw Teal Triggs across the room and upstairs at Zineswap’s reading corner, we met Indy Bhullar from the Women’s Library in London Metropolitan Uni who told us you can get a FREE, 45-min tour of their zine archive on 16 June, Thursday, 7pm. We also got a wave (hi!) from someone at the stall hosted by the British Library’s zine collection (which is an awesome archive!).

I thought it was nice to see that ZS was not the only archive at the event; we like the idea of an archive that moves and interacts with you rather than one that is static and fixed!