VECTOR #1
8.5 x 11", 136 pages,
BW, photocopied, perfect bound

Yesterday was the first really gorgeous day of Spring and I spent it wandering around Chelsea looking at stuff. In the back of my mind I knew I was supposed to go to a party for the first issue of VECTOR but I couldn't figure out where and when. En route to the train, I ran into a friend on her way to the party which was half a block away. How serendipitous!

from Otherlife by Hadassa Goldvicht

VECTOR is a journal of writing by artists, however not all the entries are made up entirely of words. One of my favorite pieces is a paper cutout collage situation by Cheryl Donegan (one page pictured after the jump). She makes the most out of the limitations of the printing process (photocopying) and residual bits of ink and weird lines become part of the work. Lars Norgard's journal entries about selling art, his pregnant wife, getting sick and being a crazy OCD nutcase are also a highlight. Photographer Erica Baum contributed some cool grainy images of UFO sightings and some prose poems made from first person accounts of the events. Also included are faxes, essays, interviews, lists, missed connections, notes, etc. Overall, VECTOR #1 is a decent first issue and I'm looking forward to seeing more.

VECTOR #1 is downloadable in PDF form from their website. You can buy a print copy for $10, also directly from them.

Continue Reading Vector

I have a tendency to gloss over while looking through the fashion section at Universal News. There are so many enormous European fashion magazines and I can't tell most of them apart. The stories all kind of blend together and I find myself unable to remember anything specific about each issue. But Vs. Magazine, also a large fashion, etc. mag from Europe, rises above the rest. The stuff they cover isn't that unique: fashion designers, rock bands, an actor or two. So what is it that makes Vs. so good? Well, first of all, the photography is just fucking gorgeous. And I think what really makes Vs. different from its peers is the maturity of its content. You get the feeling that everything is well-considered—the section of interviews in the middle of the book is printed on matte paper and all the photos are black and white. They're smart. They are enthusiastic but not spazzy. They have a clear voice and they stick to it.

Pages from the current issue (I believe its their 4th), after the jump...

Continue Reading Vs.

It would make us very happy if ya'll bought a Print Fetish Tote bag, or visited the Print Fetish Amazon store to alleviate our hosting costs. However, since I'm ever so nice (bitch, cunty, pure evil... but nice) I offer you the first PF Wallpaper. I like wallpapers, they're fun to do and ease the pain of doing lame ass paid work.

Download PF Wallpaper 1

Constance is a limited edition art magazine out of New Orleans that premiered in the aftermath of Katrina. New Orleans, in my opinion, is an undervalued center for the arts, so I was very excited to see this extremely well put together full color magazine that showcases artists and writers living and working in my favorite city. The second issue of Constance, Delicate Burdens is out now.

Why the name "Constance" and What is Constance's editorial mission?

Cord Bueker, JNR and I lived on Constance Street before the storm. We lived on a great block. Our year there was very important for my personal and work development. It was a creative household and we had fantastic neighbors. We had originally conceived a sort of exquisite corpse of Cord’s work and mine and wanted to publish it in a book form. However, the storm put the wrench in those plans, so as we slowly returned to NOLA, I had him help me conceptualize the theme of ‘Replicas and Replacements’. After the storm, Constance was more necessary than ever for collecting and cataloging peoples’ work that never really had a chance for gallery space as well as up-and-coming, younger artists. Constance, at its core, wants to create a historical document of the times in which it is published. The aim of the publication is to let people outside the city know that there are still people working in the visual and literary arts. And then to share that work outside of a city that can be so insular about sharing its work.

Continue Reading PF Interview: Erik Kiesewetter, Editor and Designer of Constance

I mostly made this because Ms. Keough loves totes, and wanted a personalized one to carry magazines home in. HEY! Here is an idea... YOU can buy one too! Fierce.

Print Fetish Tote $15.99 at The R&S CafePress store.

Wednesday April 2nd: Dave Eggers, of McSweeneys and novels with long titles fame, has organized a show at Apex Art which opens today. Says Eggers in the press release: "This show will explore a very small and specific type of artmaking exemplified by contemporary people like David Shrigley, Raymond Pettibon, Nedko Solakov, and Tucker Nichols. This kind of art, which we refuse to name, is somewhat crude, usually irreverent, and always funny. It exists somewhere between one-panel cartoons and text-based art." Apex Art. 291 Church St. 6-8pm. Free.

Thursday April 3rd: Ryan Mcginley's show I Know Where the Summer Goes opens at Team. 83 Grand St. 6-8pm. Free.

Ari Marcopolis is signing copies of his new book The Chance is Higher at Dashwood Books. This hardcover book is 72 pages of gorgeous photocopies and numbered in an edition of 50. Get over there and grab one right away. Dashwood Books. 33 Bond St. 6-9pm. Free.

(page from The Chance is Higher)

Our friend Julian Myers is presenting two events at Artists Space this week. Thursday's event is called Riot Show and is a structured presentation of archival recordings of crowd violence at rock shows. And on Saturday, Mirror-Travel in the Motor City: "an experimental and collaborative lecture with Edgar Arceneaux on the subject of Michael Heizer's earthwork Dragged Mass, urban resistance, buried sites, basement parties, and afro-futurism." More info here. Artists Space. 38 Greene St. Each event $5.

Friday April 4th: Gregory Crewdson opening at Luhring Augustine. Luhring Augustine. 531 W. 24th St. 6-8pm. Free.

Saturday April 5th: fierce pussy opening (ha I can't even type that without giggling) at Printed Matter. fierce pussy is a collective of lesbros/queer women committed to creating public art and performing direct action around issues of lesbian identity and visibility. They were active in New York from 1991-1995. Core member included Pam Brandt, Nancy Brooks Brody, Joy Episalla, Alison Froling, Zoe Leonard, Suzanne Wright, and Carrie Yamaoka. They used material available from their day jobs, old typewriters, stuff other people donated, archival and family materials of their own. This sounds cool. I'm going to go check it out. Printed Matter. 195 10th Ave. 5-7pm. Free.

Anyone who's worked a temp job or, hell, anyone who's worked anywhere can relate to the stories in Temp Slave! The zine was started by Jeff Kelly in 1993 as a one-off response to being strung along as a temp at an insurance company with a promise for future employment only to be canned out of the blue. He handed it out to other employees as he was leaving the company. He got such a good response that he continued publishing. Each issue includes crushing boredom, rage against bosses who use you and then toss you out, hilarious ways to scam the company, cartoons, survival tales, the many many ways to get fired, and more. Jeff Kelly no longer publishes Temp Slave! but you can buy the Temp Slave! compilation book through Garrett County Press.

This excerpt from Heidi Pollock's great article chronicling the day in the life of a temp from issue #5 is a perfect introduction. It reminds me of every mind-numbing spirit-destroying data entry temp job I've ever had:

"In the morning you always feel a complete and total separation from your fellow workers. At no other time during the day do you feel like such an outsider...Even the briefest thought that you might have something in common with the permanent secretaries makes you queasy and short of breath. This arrogance wears off as the day continues.

In any case, from 11 or so onward, until lunch, you experience a supreme and all-consuming boredom. It is so boring that you want to kill yourself. You want to stand on the top of your desk and scream and jump up and down and tear your hair and tear off your clothes. Sometimes the urge to simply scream out random obscenities is so powerful, it makes you worry about your sanity. You begin to feel the power of desire."

Some scanned pages and covers after the jump...

Continue Reading PF Collection: Temp Slave!

Growing up in the French Quarter I saw tacky T-Shirt shops take over like the borg. But Defend New Orleans makes N.O screen shirts that locals actually wear, such as the one below. Proceeds from sales benefit a a variety of New Orleans housing charities and arts organizations.

Last week I went to a show of new Japanese painting at Secret Project Robot. My friends played music and I saw some good stuff.

I didn't know, until just now, that the show was part of a larger festival of emerging Japanese artists. Japanese comics and art books are on display at New York Kinokuniya Book Store, Printed Matter, Spoonbill & Sugartown, and St. Marks Books. Through Sunday March 30. (pictured is a piece by Ruriko Torii.)

Common Folk Illustrated Journal
Published by Garrett County Press
Design by briarmade,
Photography by Thomas Hancock
5.5" x 7", 200 pages, softcover
$14 + shipping

Far more than a nice portable journal for notes, doodles and drawings, the Common Folk Illustrated Journal is an inspirational sketchbook. Some of its pages are blank, some are photographs, others have crosshair guides. The photographs are of every day wanderings, common moments you could say... graffiti on walls, street signs and sky, bikes, abandoned furniture, empty bars, etc. Only a couple of them stand out for me as strong single images, like the store window with polaroids of shoplifters or the pipes and umbrella leaning against a wall in the sun. Otherwise, these images are mellow. They, like the rest of the book, have a nice brown tone. They let the mind wander, serving as a tool to get your own brain working. This is your journal, after all.

Common Folk, a collective of Brooklyn graffiti artists, put this together with photographer Thomas Hancock and New Orleans-based publisher Garrett County Press. Buy it directly from them, or at cool bookstores around town. (Pictured above is one of the inside photographs, chosen because I like to look at cars.)