Great Finds at East Village Zine Fair
It’s the annual East Village Zine Fair!
East Village Zine Fair started four years ago, miraculously, in the middle of the pandemic scare, and has grown into an annual festival for independent publishers, artists, punks, comic fan, and activists to amplify their voice through printed matters. I’m so glad that I get to check it out before heading out of the country for the summer!
Here are some of my favorites at the fair.
I became of a fan of Chang Yuchen!
The table of Gong Press was situated near the entrance of the fair, and my eyes were immediately caught by several art books authored by artist Chang Yuchen. Spoiler alert: I ended up buying all of them!
After reading all of her books I bought at the fair, I went to check out the artist’s website - trained as a printmaking artist, she now employs a variety of medium, including sound and dance, to explore “expression” beyond words and imagery. I am amazed by her work. I’m a big fan now!
Brain Washing from Phone Towers
Many people write blogs, post on Instagram, tweet, release podcasts or upload YouTube videos. Sarah Nicholls brings self-publishing to a whole new level - or down to the most traditional level: Setting up a publishing house Brain Washing from Phone Towers and publishing her writing with illustrations in the form of a pamphlet. Not only are they printed on paper and distributed via snail mail, but they are also entirely hand printed! The illustrations are printed from her hand-carved lino blocks, and the text is type-set by hand with a letterpress!
Please please I beg you to check out her site where she talks about the making of these pamphlets! It makes you think twice whenever you heard the word “blog”.
Here’s a flip through of the two pamphlets I bought:
House of Spice
Produced by Lucky RISO, designed and illustrated by Weiyun Chen, Emily Roemer, Supatida Suitiratana and Yoonbee Baek, this book is not just pretty but also yummy! My mouth started watering when I saw this book!
Mini Tiny Book
This little darling is half the size of a matchbox, and the author provided an acrylic magnifier for the reader to look it through.
The title of the book is 4:09 AM. It chronicles the author’s stream of thoughts during the hour of insomnia.
Meet the Alchemist!
This gentleman, Brian Cotnoir is the author of all the alchemy books on this table. He has dedicated his life to write titles like Alchemy: The Poetry of Matter, Practical Alchemy, On Alchemy…
In one of my favorite books, The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho, the boy asked the alchemist, who had been mentoring and protecting him in the last leg of his journey, if he could learn how to turn lead into gold.
The alchemist told him that alchemy was about penetrating to the Soul of the World to uncover the treasure that had been reserved for each person, and that the boy already knew how to do it.
As for turning lead to gold, it was the alchemist’s Personal Legend and his treasure, not the boy’s. The boy had other Personal Legend and treasure awaiting. The alchemist went on and said:
I have known true alchemists. They locked themselves in their laboratories, and tried to evolve, as gold had. And they found the Philosopher’s Stone, because they understood that when something evolves, everything around that thing evolves as well.
Others stumbled upon the stone by accidents. They already had the gift, and their souls were readier for such things than the souls of others. But they don’t count. They’re quite rare.
And then there were the others, who were interested only in gold. They never found the secret. They forgot that lead, copper, and iron have their own Personal Legends to fulfill. And anyone who interferes with the Personal Legends of another thing never will discover his own.
So when I saw Brian passionately introducing his alchemy books to this lady, I smiled and listened quietly for a while. I didn’t hear a word he said, because I imagined him to be the alchemist in The Alchemist who talked about Personal Legend and the Soul of the World. Alchemy is not my Personal Legend, but I’m happy I came across an alchemist at the Zine Fair.
I walked away without speaking to Brian. I like to keep it that way.
