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Queering the library: Queerxcore

Queerxcore: zines and self publishing

Exploring the ways LGBTQ+ artists have represented their lives, identities, bodies, and relationships through radical self-published works including zines and artists’ books:

 

Art Fag zine by Sina Sparrow

2012

A collection of autobiographical diy queer comics by artist Sina Sparrow

 

Audre Lorde by Eloisa Aquino

2011

Illustrated zine with biographical information and quotes relating to the writer and activist Audre Lorde. This zine is from the series 'Life and times of butch dykes' and dedicates each issue to a lesbian artist/writer, and pays homage to women who have challenged gender and sexuality.

 

Australian Asian Queer by William Yang

2012

A4 full colour zine featuring photographs of the artist at various Australian gay pride events through the 90s with text discussing identity and communities

 

Brazilian Singers by Eloisa Aquino

2014

Illustrated zine with biographical information and quotes relating to lesbian Brazilian musicians.. This zine is from the series 'Life and times of butch dykes' and dedicates each issue to a lesbian artist/writer, and pays homage to women who have challenged gender and sexuality.

 

Butt Springsteen by CJ Reay

2015

CJ describes his first queer experience as seeing the cover of Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA. The rest of the zine provides an illustrated history of Bruce Springsteen’s butt and CJ’s queer awakening.

 

Claude Cahun / Eloisa Aquino

7 AQUI (ARTISTS’ BOOKS)

2010

Illustrated zine with biographical information and quotes relating to the artist Claude Cahun. This zine is from the series The Life and Times of Butch Dykes which dedicates each issue to a lesbian artist, writer, thinker and pays homage to women who have challenged gender and sexuality

 

Conversations on our hair / Rudy Loewe

7 LOEW (ARTISTS’ BOOKS)

2014

Zine containing illustration and photography, as well as interviews with queer people of colour relating their hair to gender and sexuality

 

Dear Ellen Page: or all the times I came out in 2014

7 CLOU (ARTISTS’ BOOKS)

2015

Illustrated comic zine which humorously looks at the ongoing process of coming out as gay.

 

Gay goth scene

7 GIBB (ARTISTS’ BOOKS)

2014

Gay Goth Scene is the third issue in this cult zine series and includes sexual images combined with lyrics and doodles by artists Raven and Bones aka artists Joel Gibb and Paul P.

 

Gay Semiotics / Hal Fischer

7 FISC (ARITSTS’ BOOKS)

2015

Reproduction of an original artist’s book examining codes of sexual orientation and identification in 1970’s San Francisco

 

Gertrude Stein / Eloisa Aquino

7 AQUI (ARTISTS’ BOOKS)

2010

Illustrated zine with biographical information and quotes relating to the writer Gertrude Stein. This zine is from the series 'Life and times of butch dykes' and dedicates each issue to an lesbian artist/writer, and pays homage to women who have challenged gender and sexuality

 

I’m no slut / Jack William

7 WILL (ARTISTS’ BOOKS)

2015

Personal accounts of queer sex, abuse, slut-shaming, mental health, and rape culture. The zine features copy and pasted text with colour collage and illustrations

 

Judith Butler / Eloisa Aquino

7 AQUI (ARTISTS’ BOOKS)

2012

Illustrated zine with biographical information and quotes relating to the writer and activist Judith Butler. This zine is from the series 'Life and times of butch dykes' and dedicates each issue to an lesbian artist/writer, and pays homage to women who have challenged gender and sexuality

 

Laid / CJ Reay

7 Reay (ARTISTS’ BOOKS)

2016

Riso printed comic zine. A sex worker has a traumatic experience from his past brought back to him and must decide how to deal with it.

 

LTTR: positively nasty

7.036.78 (ARTISTS’ BOOKS)

2006

LTTR  is spiral bound like a calendar, a formal suggestion to readers to flip through and display a different piece each day or month. Bound in is also a vinyl pouch of artist multiples: ‘the bloody string’ a clay ring on leather string by Anna Sew-Hoy, a poster by The Third Leg, two copies of Zoe Leonard’s “I want a president" postcard, a photocopied and hand colored artist book by Edie Fake, and a pamphlet featuring Eqbal Ahmad’s text compiled by E. Roysdon. Contributors: Alvin Baltrop, Amber Ibarreche, Anna Sew-Hoy, Anne Hall, Bruce Wiest, Celeste Dupuy-Spencer, Deb Shoval, Donnie & Travis, Edie Fake, Emily Roysdon, Erika Earl, Fereshteh Toosi, GB Jones, Guadalupe Rosales, James Tsang, Jeanine Oleson, Kate Huh, Leander Djønne, Liz Flyntz, Mariev Robitaille, R.H. Quaytman, Ridykeulous, Shannon Ebner, Shelley Marlow, Silas Howard, Tania Hammidi, The Third Leg, Ulrike Müller, Zackary Drucker, and Zoe Leonard. Published in cooperation with Capricious Magazine. Editors: G. Brooks Takahashi, K. Hardy, U. Mueller, and E. Roysdon. Book design by A.K. Burns with LTTR.

 

Memory Palaces / Edie Fake

7 FAKE (ARTISTS’ BOOKS) (OVERSIZE)

2014

Exploring both real and imagined places in Chicago's LGBT queer history, Memory Palaces is a map, a love letter and a fantasy of the city. There is a mournful quality to walking these streets at night, each house serving as a memorial to what's been lost and what could have been, but this isn't simply a sad story. Every building on the avenues of Memory Palaces has a gate, a door, a point of entry and their brilliant colors are an ecstatic celebration in themselves.

 

Nancy / Alex Creep

7 CREE (ARTISTS’ BOOKS)

2010

Personal zine by Alex Creep featuring illustrations and text regarding representation of queer femme identities in pop culture and beyond.

 

Out/lines underground gay graphics from before stonewall

7.049.1 WU

2002

Gay male sexuality has always been represented in contexts of widely diverging visibility and acceptance. The first two-thirds of the twentieth century witnessed intensifying waves of queer self-identification through erotic images and at the same time cycles of societal suppression. Out/Lines resurrects a heritage of explicit homoerotic illustrations, once buried and invisible to all but the clandestine communities who produced, circulated and treasured them. Here is a wealth of 200 previously unpublished "obscene" graphics from the pre-stonewall underground.

 

Pajuba: the language of Brazilian Travestis

7 AQUI (ARTISTS’ BOOKS)

2011

Pajubá :The Language of Brazilian Travestis is a zine that mixes art and linguistics! Learn about the secret language of Brazilian travestis, one that demands not only a knowledge of the African language Yoruba mixed with Portuguese, but also a command of a complex set of performative gestures to go with it."

 

QTIPOC assemble! Radical imaginations of queer, trans, intersex people of colour / Jacob V. Joyce

7 JOYC (ARTISTS’ BOOKS)

2016

At an anti-corporate pride event during the summer of 2015 artists Aaks Hits, Abdul Rufai Ajala and Jacob V Joyce decided to photograph and interview 40 QTIPOC (queer, trans & intersex people of colour) asking them all the same question: If you had a super power to fight white supremacist, ableist, hetero-patriarchal capitalism what would it be and how would you use it? This book is just one outcome of many conversations started on that day and is intended to archive and illustrate the radical imaginations of people navigating intersecting oppressions of race, gender and sexuality.

 

Queer / Marc Vallée

7 VALL (ARTISTS’ BOOKS)

2014

Queer is a photo zine documenting two years in the life of writer and artist Dom Lyne and explores mental health and sexuality.

 

Queer +/ Femme / Petra Szeman

7 SZEM (ARTISTS’ BOOKS)

2016

Mini zine discussing queer femme identities with reference to the art of Karla Black.

 

Queer spirits / A. A. Bronson, Peter Hobbs.

7.036.78 BRO (ARTISTS’ BOOKS)

2011

Artists’ book documenting a performance by artists A.A. Bronson and Peter Hobbs. The performance ‘Invocation of the queer spirits’ took place at Halloween in New Orleans, as the artists ‘christen’ the latest rebirth of New Orleans  as a cultural capital, while  evoking the spirits of the marginalised  gay populations that have played a formative role in shaping New Orleans culture.

 

Queer zines  /A.A. Bronson

7.036.78 QUEE (ARTISTS’ BOOKS)

2008

"Queer Zines collects the varied practices of zine makers past and present, from North America and Europe, and lists them alphabetically, starting with Toronto's 88 Chins and ending with the Dean Sameshima zine Young Men at Play.”

 

Queerness on new planets: an Ursula K Le Guinn fanzine / Petra Szeman

7 SZEM (ARTISTS’ BOOKS)

2016

Zine dedicated to the representation of sexuality and gender in the work of Ursula K. Le Guinn, including text and art.

 

Queeroes: portraits of six unsung lgbt icons / Luke Carter

7 CART (ARTISTS’ BOOKS)

2015

Artists’ book featuring concertina folded pages comprising of six lino cut portraits of LGBT icons with accompanying biographies.

 

Red Hanky panky zine / Rachel House

7 HOUS (ARTISTS’ BOOKS)

1999

A split zine containing two separate zine issues that can be accessed when the zine is flipped in tête-bêche format. Red Hanky is a diy comic zine featuring comic strips with contributions by Jason Barker and Ruth Muffmonster. Hormone Frenzy features text and illustrations regarding queer identities, gay pride, and politics

 

Some faggy gestures

7 OLES (ARTISTS’ BOOKS)

2008

Artists’ book published alongside the exhibition 'Some gay-lesbian artists and/or artists relevant to homo-social culture born between c.1300-1870 / Sex-Museum 2005-2007'

 

State of the union / Robert Ransick

7 RANS (ARTISTS BOOKS)

2009

State of the Union" is a thirty-one print installation focused on the U.S. states that have amended their constitution through defence of marriage act ballot measures to explicitly define marriage as between a man and a woman. Each print is dedicated to one of these states and includes the state ballot title, text of the ballot measure and the official voter results in numeric count and percentage. All text is printed in white Humanist font on a solid lavender background. The opacity of both the printed ballot measure text and the lavender background is dictated by the number of "yes" and "no" votes received. The higher the percentage of "no" votes, the more opaque (saturated) the lavender becomes

 

Victim / Claire Hooper

7 HOOP (ARTISTS’ BOOKS)

2005

“Seventeen artists, writers and other creative individuals have contributed to this book, the outcome of a project based on Victim, dir. Basil Dearden 1961, starring Dirk Bogarde and Sylvia Symms. Victim is a blackmail drama with a political ambition; made before the de-criminalization of homosexuality, it uses the device of detective fiction as a tool to put forward its pro-gay message.”

 

Visual vitriol: the street art and subcultures of punk

7.067.6 ENS (chapter on queer punk and hardcore)

2011

A collection of writings and art on punk subcultures. Includes the chapter Redefining the body electric : queer punk and hardcore which explores queer punk as a movement and features examples of queer zines and art work.