There was a great little gallery in Melbourne called Hand Held Gallery run by Megan Herring, which used to exhibit Artists Books and zines. I participated in their exhibitions a number of times but sadly it closed down around 2012-2013.
Here are two of the zines I purchased from their final exhibition.
BENEATH THE SCREEN OF CLOSED EYELIDS (PORT SAID)
by Gracia Haby and Louise Jennison
Undated but numbered 57/60, 24 pages
The pages are glued along the spine and the covers attached with pink card.
I love the name of this zine! Gracia and Louise have taken very old black and white travel images which don't look very exciting at all (in this case images of Port Said) and altered them by the use of colour and the addition of gigantic exotic looking animals. The animals are larger than life, the kind of visual image you could experience in a dream and the photos have been transformed.
18.18 to 22.22
by Jan Davis Dated 2012, Unnumbered, 10 pages
The pages are folded and stapled together through tape along the spine.
This zine is a record of a train journey from Southern Cross Railway Station in Melbourne to Bairnsdale Railway Station on Saturday July 21st 2012. It's a kind of automatic drawing where the bumps and lurches of the train create the marks on the page. The names of the stations on the way are inserted as well as a message about the doors failing to open.
On the inside back cover Jan provides instructions for others to make their own train drawing.
1. Board a train
2. Put the pen lightly against the page and begin a very slow line allowing the bumps and lurches of the train to affect the progress of your line.
3. Pause your line when the train halts and record the station name,
4. Continue until journey's end.
I haven't tried making one of these train drawings but I do know other people who have enjoyed using this method to entertain themselves while in transit.
