Free For All!

Dreaming made Easy, included in Free For All, an exhibit of downloadable artist's books at Fiji Island Mermaid Press. If you have a computer and a printer, you can have, for free, books made by eight talented artists. It's a fantastic show - wonderfully varied and inspiring. Below is Marc Snyder's press release:

"The Fiji Island Mermaid Press is proud to present “FREE FOR ALL”. This online exhibition of artist’s books invites the viewer to download and assemble the books on display. The eight artists who have created books for this exhibition are Pati Bristow, Ginger Burrell, Warren Craghead III, Marti Haykin, Adele Henderson, Robert Hirsch, Judith Hoffman, and Marc Snyder. The exhibition will remain online indefinitely.

Each book in the show is available as a downloadable file. The viewer typically prints no more than one or two pages of artwork and text, which are then trimmed, folded, and cut to create miniature books. The artists have provided instructions for the viewer for the entire process.

The exhibition explores the boundary between cyberspace and “the real world”, as the show is only finished when the visitor to the site has downloaded and assembled his or her own books. Essentially, the exhibit exists wherever someone creates their own collection of books.

Brief biographical and professional information about each participating artist accompanies the artist’s book in the online exhibition. Links to view more of his or her artwork are also included.

For additional information about “FREE FOR ALL”, please contact Marc Snyder at marc@fimp.net"

Zine Energy

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Years ago I had a neighbor who made these occasionally, and passed them out to anyone who wanted one. Another neighbor, a childhood friend of his, said that he was "shell shocked" in WWII. Unfortunately she intercepted them when she could because they embarrassed her. Of course I found them so wonderful. I blacked out all family names.


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Reading Matter

I love low-cost, editioned artist's books. They are often so funky, and so appealing. For a long time I have wanted to make a book that could become multiples. Most of my books are definitely one-of-a-kind, I couldn't imagine how to do this. So, as "research" I decided to buy some. Here are a couple, I'll add more in a week or so.


Marc Snyder of Fiji Island Mermaid Press offers an Artist's Book of the Month Club. These little books are charming. Each one is folded from one sheet of paper, and the price is right ($25 for one year). The content is both humorous and serious. The image above is from his latest book, "The Revolution." Check out Marc's blog, he shows each page of "Revolution," with explanatory notes.


I had a table near the Pod Post ladies, Jennie and Carolee, at the last Book Art's Jam. They had a wonderful array of items for sale. For $5.75 I came home with "a storybook of whimsy." It's a zine produced from the notebooks they kept on a trip to Japan last year. It's fun to look at, very dense with text and images.