Dwelling in the Margins: Art Publishing in Aotearoa: 2021

On the periphery of Aotearoa New Zealand’s publishing scene, there is a rich and varied cottage industry of small press publishers. They work in collaboration, in gaps between paid gigs and with the support of like-minded peers: poets who print, curators-cum-editors, self-publishing photographers, and cross-disciplinary designers. From this rich set of makers come books that are inventive. Books that are attentive and thoughtful. Books that are often genre-bending and indeterminate. Books that are exquisitely designed. Books that exist as beautiful objects, often made to be admired rather than mass-produced. Despite the huge costs of printing, and even bigger challenges of distribution, alternative publishing in Aotearoa is thriving. Dwelling in the Margins introduces the leading figures of independent publishing in their own words. Through a curated collection of stories and essays, thirty practitioners reflect on their craft, speculate on the changing landscape of book-making, and imagine alternative frameworks for the future of publishing. With contributions by Alan Deare, Alice Connew, Anita Tótha, Balamohan Shingade, Bridget Reweti, Bruce Connew, Catherine Griffiths, Chloe Geoghegan, Chris Holdaway, Dominic Hoey, Ella Sutherland, Erena Shingade, Gabi Lardies, Harry Culy, Haruhiko Sameshima, Imogen Taylor, Jonty Valentine, Judy Darragh, Katie Kerr, Lizzie Boon, Louise Menzies, Luke Wood, Matariki Williams, Matthew Galloway, Melinda Johnston, Samuel Walsh, Sarah Maxey, Simon Gennard, Sophie Davis, Sophie Rzepecky and Virginia Woods-Jack.