In 2003, when Anno Domini exhibited its third annual Art of Zines show, I wrote: “Those who think the zine era is dead and gone will be refreshed to see more than 350 zines from all over the country.”
Yes, I can quote myself this time around. Because I’m still around.
With a new Art of Zines show set to open this weekend, the history of sporadic zine exhibits will not leave me alone. Let us begin.
At the time of that show 22 years ago, Anno Domini was located in a brick building at 150 S. Montgomery. There was already enough of a following for folks to send in their zines from throughout the land.
In case you don’t know, zines are do-it-yourself, small-circulation self-publications whose creators manufacture and distribute the works themselves. More or less invented by the Dada artists following World War One, zines became popular during every other moment of blasé corporatized tedium that drove people to circumvent the established order. They became especially prominent during the punk eras.
The 2003 show at Anno Domini became a Metro story, as did the 2004 Art of Zines show, which unfolded at the San Jose Museum of Art. Six years later, in 2010, I wrote a third story. By then, Anno Domini had moved into the former Camera One building on South First Street, where it continues to operate. They’re still around too.
I remember that 2003 show, and since the best zines are old-school cut-and-paste adventures, that’s exactly what is happening as you read this. In 2003, the exhibit featured a wide variety of curious delights, everything from tiki bars to zombie kisses, from hip-hop cartoonery to punk-rock defiance. There were horror-movie zines, rants by psychopaths, instructional pamphlets, political diatribes, lesbo-anarchist screeds and even poetry. Some were colorful glossy publications, while others were 10th-generation Xeroxed mush. A few were obviously printed on sheet-fed presses, while some appeared to be midnight copies, run off at work, on the manager’s dime.
The whole show turned Anno Domini into a groovy reading library of ignored culture. The public was invited to walk in, yank a zine off the wall, take a seat, and peruse these cultural artifacts. It was so fun.
At the time, no other art gallery in San Jose was doing this. Cactus Club had just closed, Blank Club hadn’t yet opened, and there was no other place for the punks, the hip-hop community, and all the other outcasts to assemble together. At Anno Domini, they did, in that ol’ brick building over by the train station.
In 2004, Anno Domini took it to another level. The next Art of Zines show erupted at the San Jose Museum of Art. That’s right, a mainstream arts institution displayed a hundred small-circulation, do-it-yourself publications. At the time, in no other major city could I explore a conventional art museum, snag a copy of Murder Can Be Fun and read about kids who wreck trains, or perhaps a copy of Psycho Ex, where teenage girls dealt with crazy former boyfriends. Zines had now gone from early-20th-century sci-fi cults to ’60s radicalism to punk rock straight to the San Jose Museum of Art. I was so proud of my hometown.
Even better, the 2004 show included a panel session at the museum with V. Vale from RE/Search Publications—San Francisco’s first punk rock publisher back in the ’70s. For that story, I called up Vale afterward. Riffing on J.G. Ballard, we talked about the revolutionary potential of suburbia.
“Pretty much everything that is so-called mainstream today was once avant-garde,” Vale told me. “And I think it was a very intelligent decision by the San Jose Museum of Art to actually listen to some very avant-garde curators. … In this instance, major cities will have to play catch-up to San Jose.”
Later in 2010—only 15 years ago now—when Anno Domini conjured up another Art of Zines show with more than 300 new zines, I walked in and randomly plucked out a few titles to identify with. I chose “Media Whore,” “Scumbags and Superstars,” “Functionally Ill” and “Cranky Buddha.” And then I wrote another story.
This year promises to be even better. I can’t wait.
I had the pleasure of exhibiting at this years Art of Zine at Anno Domini. I’m from NZ and The team at the gallery have truly created something magical. And they truly care about what they do… I had multiple postal service nightmares. But they went the extra mile to get me in.