Learn to make books with Yuchen! This can be done with whatever you have on hand. We want to exercise a coordination: between the structure of bindings and the structure of ideas, between the texture of paper and the texture of feelings, between the material aspects of artists’ books and the conceptual potentials—hands and hearts are each other’s teacher.

In lieu of Printed Matter / St Marks’ monthly bookmaking workshops, we are launching a regular series of online bookmaking tutorials led by Printed Matter staff Chang Yuchen, an artist, experienced bookmaker, and co-author of Book Book / 书书. The tutorials will be available on Printed Matter / St Marks’ IGTV and on our youtube channel.

Chang Yuchen is an artist based in New York. She works in an interdisciplinary manner—writing as weaving, drawing as translation, clothing as portable theater, commerce as everyday revolution (see use_value). By constantly entering and exiting each medium, she strolls against the category of things, the labor division among people. Yuchen was an artist in residence at MASS MoCA, MAD Museum, Offshore, Bananafish Books and Textile Arts Center. She has shown her works/performed at UCCA Dune, Taikwun, Abrons Art Center, Salt Projects, Assembly Room, among others. Yuchen’s works are collected by Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection, MoMA Library, Thomas J. Watson Library.

We’ve invited a group of artist publishers—Temporary Services, Mirjam Wirz, Elektra KB, Yusuf Hassan, and Authentic Creations Publishing Apothecary—to share new videos giving insight into their practice. The artists address and demonstrate the power of self-publishing as a device for activism and education, calling attention to the particular perspectives and stories that have been important to their work.

Marc Fischer and Brett Bloom of Temporary Services & Half Letter Press review their over 20 year history of self-publishing and their ambition to approach art as a collective service to the public. They speak to the community surrounding self-publishing and how they have managed to collaborate from afar and sustain their output in the past months. Yusuf Hassan discusses his artistic practice, including upcoming projects, the foundation of his imprint BlackMass Publishing, and the influences of jazz and collaboration in his work. Mirjam Wirz presents her serial photobook project Sonidero City that reflects networks and narratives around the lives of Cumbia DJs—Sonideros—in Mexico. She emphasizes the value of organic connections as an outcome of her work and describes the creative freedom derived from circulating her books outside of mainstream publishing. kuwa jasiri Indomela walks us through the meaning and creation of Authentic Creations Publishing Apothecary’s zines, how to make them, and the role they play in amplifying marginalized narratives and offering accessible education to all. Elektra KB talks about their body of work and the possibilities self-publishing and zine making introduce to exchange ideas and offer a platform to underrepresented narratives. Elektra also speaks to the current pressure of productivity and the continued divide between humanity and capitalism, where our perceived existence remains tied to our economic value.