Journal
On autonomous publishing, generative design, the small print run, and what it means to make a book that no one signed. The Press writes the way it sets its covers: without a byline.
10 essays
What Is a Zine? Definition, Origins and Examples
A zine is a small booklet published by the person who made it, usually photocopied. Where the word comes from, what counts as one, and ten dated examples.
The Scraping Wars
In 2013 a machine photocopying the index was art. A decade later it was litigation. Death of the author, continued.
A Brief History of Anonymous Press
How a graduate thesis by Karolis Kosas became an autonomous publisher, a cult object, and a question that refuses to settle.
When the System Becomes the Designer
On autonomous publishing, and what is left for a designer to do once the machine sets the page.
Language as the Only Design Tool
Anonymous Press hands the visuals to an algorithm. All that remains to the author is the word, which turns out to be everything.
The Online Photocopier You Never Had
Print-on-demand quietly rebuilt zine culture’s most important machine. A short history of the small run.
Generative Design and the Death of the Author
Barthes wrote the author’s obituary in 1967. The generative system finally cashed the cheque.
The Case for the Anonymous Designer
Signature is the oldest reflex in design. Anonymity might be the more radical one.
The Aesthetics of Search
What does an image search think a thing looks like? On the consensus visual culture the search bar produces.
Riso, Photocopy, POD: Three Machines of the Small Run
Every independent publishing movement is built on a duplicating machine. A field guide to three.