Moth Woman Press zines in Canada

Poker Faces, mini-zine, Moth Woman Press, 2012, edition: 100
(Selected page views)

In response to an invitation from curator, Jim Drobnick, two Moth Woman Press mini-zines, Poker Faces and Card Sharps, have just travelled to Toronto, Canada. Jim is one half of the curatorial collaborative, DisplayCult. Along with fellow curator, Jennifer Fisher, he is currently gathering examples of cards and card-related material.

Card Sharps, mini-zine, Moth Woman Press, 2013, edition: 100
(Selected page views)

Jim and Jennifer are still in the research phase of this extensive project; they plan to hold an exhibition and eventually write a book on the topic. Following this, they intend to donate the collection to a university, so that research on the decks, artworks and publications can continue. 

Jim Brodnick is a critic, curator and Associate Professor at OACD University, Toronto. 

Jennifer Fisher is a critic, curator and Associate Professor of Contemporary Art and Curatorial Studies at York University, Toronto.

To learn about other DisplayCult projects, visit the website:

www.displaycult.com

MWP zines at Sticky Institute

Stocked at Sticky: Top row: The Shadow Women 1-3 and Card Sharps
Bottom row: Poker Faces, Tattooed Faces and
Tattooed Faces in Living Colour

Since Hand Held Gallery closed its doors in 2013, Moth Woman Press has felt rather like a ship without a sail. The aesthetic of our zines was in comfortable alignment with the artist books and zines that gallery director Megan Herring showed; in fact, many were sources of inspiration for our own fledgling efforts.

Despite Melbourne’s thriving zine culture, as witnessed by the annual Sticky Institute Festival of the Photocopier zine fair (FOTP) held last month at Melbourne Town Hall, commercial outlets for zines are somewhat thin on the ground - at least, as far as I've discovered.

There is, however, a notable exception, namely the above mentioned Sticky Institute, a veritable Aladdin’s cave located in the Degraves Street Subway, Campbell’s Arcade (“Under Flinders Street Station”, as they say on their website).

My first memories of this arcade, with its distinctive pink tiles and art deco curves, date from childhood train trips to the city with my parents. Sticky has been there for considerably less time than that, but since its formation in 2006, it has firmly established itself as the mecca for zine culture in Melbourne.

Campbell's Arcade, Degraves Street Subway, leading to platforms
for Flinders Street Station

As of yesterday, a small selection of MWP zines are now stocked by Sticky. I’m not sure why it took me so long to approach them. I’ve visited many times, and have acquired numerous zines for my personal collection from there. I guess I had it in my head that the aesthetic of my own zines wouldn’t fit in with those at Sticky, and that they’d be rejected out of hand. In fact, Sticky shows an astonishing range of zines, and I’m thrilled that seven Moth Woman Press publications have joined their number.

Sticky Institute

'Poker Faces' zine Part 3: Page Views

Finally, here are some double page spreads of the completed zine, beginning with the front and back covers.

Photocopy paper is ideal for this form of book. A heavier paper (such as the Canson that the original artwork was glued to) makes precision folding increasingly difficult as the book starts to bulk up during the folding process.

Poker Faces will be launched at the opening of the group show BAZE (Book Arts and Zine Exhibition) 6-8 pm on 20 December at Hand Held Gallery.

Pictured above left and below:

Poker Faces zine, 2012, colour photocopy cut and folded, 10.5 x 7.5 cm (closed) The zine is a signed limited edition of 100. Photography by Tim Gresham.

Back and front covers

Pages 2 and 3

Pages 4 and 5

Pages 6 and 7

'Poker Faces' zine Part 2: Construction

The miniature playing cards on the colaphon page and the back cover were prizes in a Christmas cracker. Originally a set of three, they came with written instructions for a series of card tricks, which I never did get around to trying out. There was no Queen, only a King, but performing a sex change turned out to be a reasonably straightforward operation.

Poker Faces is a basic cut and folded zine. The major benefit of this construction is that all the artwork is on one side of a single sheet, so the entire layout can be printed simultaneously. This is also a considerable economic advantage, especially for colour copying, which can be quite expensive when it runs to several pages. Afterwards, some careful, but simple folding and cutting quickly transforms the sheet into an eight-page book. 

1. A rough dummy indicates the layout of the images in the order
they will appear in the zine

2. The artwork is glued to the paper with an acid free glue stick. It is
now ready for photocopying

3. Photocopied page with vertical folds

4. Horizontal fold in the centre, with slit cut across the two central panels

5. More folding, and a single page becomes an eight page book

6. Front and back covers

7. Inside pages

'Poker Faces' zine Part 1: Preparation and Painting

Recently I’ve been working on two small zines, both of them made especially for BAZE, the Christmas exhibition at Hand Held Gallery.

The first of these is called Poker Faces. It is illustrated with five small paintings on the backs of old playing cards, sourced earlier this year from a charity shop in Ballarat.

For many years I’ve been drawn to miniature portraits, especially those from the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras. Painstakingly painted on vellum, they were then glued onto playing card supports. I was aware of this connection when I made the paintings, although of course, aside from a slight increase in scale, the main distinction is that my ‘portraits’ are painted directly onto the cards.

Playing cards have a plastic coating from which directly applied paint would chip off very easily, so I began with a thin layer of clear acrylic sealer. Once the cards had been suitably prepared, the surfaces were not only more stable, but also extremely receptive to the paint and a pleasure to work on. The figures’ basic shapes were initially blocked in with gesso. Once this had dried (it didn’t take long during the recent heat wave) I lightly penciled in a few key outlines. The paintings’ surfaces were gradually built up with thin layers of acrylic paint combined with a satin medium. The medium, which is also a varnish, doubled as a protective coating over the finished works. 

Above left: the finished painting  

Pictured below: the work in various stages of progress