Book printers manufacture paperback books with a form of bookbinding called perfect binding, in which their pages are glued together to form a spine.Just picture a paperback book: you're picturing perfect binding.
Booklets like zines are not perfectly bound but are saddle stitched, a printer's term for stapled, or saddle sewn, bound with a needle and thread or string. A "foldy" zine consist of several pages folded together without any binding. The vast majority of zines are stapled.
The Pace Zine Library has moved! We're setting up at 41 Park Row, 15th floor (English dept.), room 1523. Thank you to the English Department for having us!
The Zine Library is a new resource for experiential pedagogy sponsored by the Faculty Center and developed so far by the generosity of the English Department, The Beekman Library, and several faculty members. The Library includes zines, pamphlets, artists' books, chapbooks, independent magazines, and radical and alternative publications of all kinds, both contemporary and historical. What unifies all these types of publications is a passionate attitude and an urgent need or desire to communicate or express. Whether political, cool, critical, intellectual, literary, or enthusiastic, zinesters and other creators don't wait for permission. These self- or independent publications are not accountable to corporations, institutions, or commercial forces although a few are published by commercial forces, such as the fashion company Gucci. The Zine Library consists primarily of zines found at specialized bookstores, zine fairs, and websites.
Being student centered is a goal of the Library, so we want to have students select zines as much as possible. We also want to to collect zines made by Pace students and to keep one print copy in the Library and one digitized copy in the Pace Digital Repository.
Zine Pasts and Futures
In general, zines are self-published booklets created by people seeking expression and community. People who make zines are sometimes called "zinesters." Zines are folded or stapled and therefore portable and flexible. They require no Internet connection to read. They usually do require some technology to make. In general, zines were born on photocopiers of the 20th Century. In short, a zine is a Do-It-Yourself pamphlet publication that can be endlessly reproduced. Zines are usually not unique, one-of-a-kind creations. A zine title may appear just once, or periodically. Unlike magazines and books, (most) zines do not have ISSN or ISBN numbers.
Imagine a subject. There's probably a zine about it! Zines range from seriously reverent political treatises to wildly idiosyncratic personal musings. Many zines are like diaries or letters, and many others are like mini research papers. Overall, the paper format prevails in the zine world, but you will find an increasing number of digitized or born-digital zines on the Internet.
Part of a larger world of independent thought, creativity, and publishing, Zines are more popular than ever.
On left is the cover of issue 5 of the zine Muchacha; in center is Amulet Zine, an object-based zine featuring paper necklaces by Weiyun Chen. On right is THINK(-)BEING, a zine made by a previous incarnation of the Pace Philosophy Club (student group).
Daisy, "Muchacha presents Brown Queen Latina Voices of the 21st Century," [Zine], #5. 2013.
Chen, Weiyun. "Amulet zine," [Zine]. Lucky Risograph. 2023. 2nd edition.
Pace Philosophy Club. "THINK(-)BEING" [Zine.] n.d.
This is the first Zine Library location! Stay tuned for photos of the new space at 41 Park Row, room 1523.
