Fanzines take over the Brooklyn Museum

From November 17, 2023 to March 31, 2024, the Brooklyn Museum presents the exhibition “Copy Machine Manifestos: Artists Who Make Zines”

Source: Brooklyn Museum · Image: Mark Morrisroe ( 1959 1989) and Lynelle White. Dirt [Fifth Issue], 1975/76. Xerox, 8.5 × 5.5 in. (21.5 × 14 cm). © The Estate of Mark Morrisroe (EMM)

Since the 1970s, zines -short for “fanzines”- or self-published booklets of texts and images, usually made with a copy machine have given a voice and visibility to many outside of mainstream culture. “Copy Machine Manifestos: Artists Who Make Zines”, the first major exhibition dedicated to such publications made by North America based artists, foregrounds this unexamined aesthetic practice, which has thrived over the past five decades.

This canon expanding exhibition documents zines’ relationship to various subcultures and avant garde practices, from punk and street culture to conceptual, queer, and feminist art. It also examines zines’ intersections with other mediums, including painting, drawing, collage, photography, performance, sculpture, video, and film. Featuring works by nearly one hundred artists, “Copy Machine Manifestos” demonstrates how zines have influenced a variety of artistic outputs since 1970. The touring exhibition will be accompanied by a fully illustrated publication.

This exhibition is organized by Drew Sawyer, Phillip Leonian and Edith Rosenbaum Leonian Curator of Photography, Brooklyn Museum, and Branden W. Joseph, Frank Gallipoli Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art, department of Art History and Archaeology, Columbia University, with Marcelo Yanez, Research Assistant, and Imani Williford, Curatorial Assistant, Photography, Fashion and Material Culture, Brooklyn Museum.