Julian Walker invites you to celebrate the art of publishing at Wanstead’s first-ever independent book fair next month
In 2023, I started printing short fiction in the form of handmade booklets, working from my studio in Gants Hill, using the design of early children’s books as a model. This developed into StuffLikeThat books, an imprint for my own work and that of other writers, avoiding the world of digital publishing in favour of the hand-crafted book. As new technology, particularly AI, threatens the integrity of texts and writers’ and makers’ rights over their own work, handmade work has taken on a greater importance, an alternative to quick-fire and low-impact online publishing.
StuffLikeThat will be running the first Wanstead Independent Book Fair at Wanstead Library on Saturday 1 November, showcasing and selling the work of London-based small presses, zine-makers, book artists and local, independently published authors. Zine fairs and indie book fairs are growing quickly in popularity, and Wanstead, with its book festival, popular library and Oxfam Bookshop, is an ideal location for independent-minded book-lovers to come and enjoy the energy of this area of book culture.
Zines, which began decades ago as photocopy-printed fanzines, are a space for the weird and wonderful, using printing techniques ranging from typewriters to risograph and rubber stamps. Produced without expensive equipment, they blend the skills of the writer, artist and graphic designer, mixing social commentary with fiction and ephemera, and providing spaces for emerging and marginalised writers and artists. Provocative, funny and with exciting designs, zines are now a worldwide publishing phenomenon.
Book art is a recent and fast-growing field of visual art, pushing the format of the book to new levels, incorporating different ways of printing, paper-folding, pop-ups, fold-outs, bindings and formats. Book art moves the book into the realm of interactive sculpture.
Small presses and printing workshops keep alive the rich design and tactile qualities of letterpress. The Tiny Press, which produces pamphlets and short texts exploring aspects of language, will be bringing a small printing press, and the Walthamstow-based Paekakariki Press will be showing fine editions of new poetry.
Also participating are Chrissie Nicholls (Inkpotandpen), who makes small handmade books directing a close eye at details and hand-drawn maps folded and turned into books; and Abigail Thomas (Moripaper Studio), who uses diverse papers and collage materials in her bookmaking. The Less Than 500 Press creates “zines, poetry books, art, photography, travel, satire, cultural detritus and other nonsense,” an eclectic outpouring of found images and texts collated into bizarre and wonderful little books.
StuffLikeThat’s publications range from new fiction to essays on slang and miniature books. Mandy Brannan’s work uses Japanese and Western papers to highlight structure, texture and design in sculptural bookworks.
A couple of bespoke poets, writing to demand, will make the fair fully interactive.
The Wanstead Independent Book Fair will take place at Wanstead Library on 1 November from 10.30 am to 4.30pm. For more information, visit wnstd.com/book
