Excitement for zines – self-published, DIY magazines – has been rising for the past few years, including a 2023 Brooklyn Museum exhibition. Since the Take a Zine, Leave a Zine project started in 2020, it’s installed at least a dozen stands throughout Massachusetts.
While those are a welcome celebration of the culture, events are where real community forms. On Saturday, the Somerville Zine Fest takes over the Boston Figure Art Center for a day.
The fest is organized by Emrys Schweber and Joy Bedford, two recent Tufts School of the Museum of Fine Arts alumni who form part of The Pearl House artist collective. The pair were inspired by experiences selling their own work at local art markets, where zines were a side dish rather than the main entree. At their fair, everyone comes specifically for buying, selling and swapping DIY publications. Three free workshops will teach visitors specific skills needed for zine-making.
The vendor list of more than 30 has a heavy focus on zines with comic art. One highlight is Maria Fong, also a Tufts SMFA graduate. Some of her zines are so polished they cross over into the realm of full-fledged art books. Her volume “Finding Language” is beautiful, all about the frustrations of language learning and the struggle to be understood. The pages are covered in intricate, hand-drawn patterns in red and black. Minipoems are scrawled between calligraphic brushstrokes, forming an elegant metaphor for how mark-making can contain or fail to convey meaning.
Another of Fong’s works, “Correspondence Windows,” was a pandemic-era collaboration. Fong had people send images of their quarantine window views. Using a thin brush on clear plastic, she sketched the interesting lines and shapes she saw, then mailed those back to the window owner, giving each precise instructions on where and how to match up the plastic sheet drawing with the original window. At the end, they were instructed to take one last photo for Fong. The results are surprisingly intimate, turning isolation into a chance to look closely at the world together.
Fong’s works are just one example of what the zine fest offers. More than a market, it’s a place to step into more than 30 artists’ worlds, one handmade publication at a time.
Somerville Zine Fest at Boston Figure Art Center, 285 Washington St., Union Square, Somerville. Free admission.
A stronger
Please consider making a financial contribution to maintain, expand and improve Cambridge Day.
We are now a 501(c)3 nonprofit and all donations are tax deductible.
Please consider a recurring contribution.