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Copy Machine Manifestos: Artists Who Make Zines

Copy Machine Manifestos: Artists Who Make Zines is the first exhibition dedicated to the rich history of five decades of artists’ zines produced in North America. Since the 1970s, zines—short for “fanzines,” magazines, or self-published booklets of texts and images, usually made with a copy machine—have given a voice and visibility to many operating outside of mainstream culture. Artists have harnessed the medium’s essential role in communication and community building and used it to transform material and conceptual approaches to art-making. This canon-expanding and multimedia exhibition documents zines’ relationship to various subcultures and avant-garde practices, from punk and street culture to conceptual, queer, and feminist art. It also examines zines’ intersections with collage, craft, film, drawing, painting, performance, photography, sculpture, and video.

Content: Approximately 1,000 objects

Size: Approximately 6,000 sq. ft.

Publication: Yes

Availability: Fall 2024

Curators: Branden W. Joseph, Frank Gallipoli Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art, Department of Art History and Archaeology, Columbia University, and Drew Sawyer, Sondra Gilman Curator of Photography at the Whitney Museum of American Art (formerly Phillip and Edith Leonian Curator of Photography, Brooklyn Museum), with Marcelo Gabriel Yáñez, Research Assistant, and Imani Williford, Curatorial Assistant, Photography, Fashion and Material Culture, Brooklyn Museum

Tour schedule

Vancouver Art Gallery, Canada
May 11–September 22, 2024

Brooklyn Museum, New York, New York
November 17, 2023–March 31, 2024

Click to see the full caption and credit for the top-left image.

Left to right, top to bottom:

Ramdasha Bikceem. Gunk, no. 4 (detail), 1993. Fales Library, New York University. © the artist; Daniel Guzmán, Gabriel Kuri, Damián Ortega, Luis Felipe Ortega. Casper: Revista de título mutable, no. 5 (detail), 1998. Collection Luis Felipe Ortega. © the artists; Robert Ford, with Trent Adkins and Lawrence Warren. Thing, no. 5 (detail), Fall 1991. Collection Steve Lafreniere. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, Evan McKnight); Ramdasha Bikceem. Paste-up for Gunk, no. 5, 1994. Fales Library, New York University. © the artist; Abraham Cruzvillegas. Casper: Revista de título mutable, no. 3, 1998. Collection Luis Felipe Ortega. © the artists; Robert Ford, with Trent Adkins and Lawrence Warren. Thing, no. 4, Spring 1991. Collection Steve Lafreniere. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, Evan McKnight); Linda Simpson. My Comrade, no. 1, 1987. Collection Steve Lafreniere. © the artist. (Photo: David Vu); Linda Simpson. My Comrade, no. 7 (detail), 1990. Collection Philip Aarons and Shelley Fox Aarons. © the artist (Photo: David Vu); Joey Terrill. Homeboy Beautiful, no. 2 (detail), 1979. Collection Philip Aarons and Shelley Fox Aarons. © the artist and Ortuzar Projects, New York. (Photo: David Vu); Joey Terrill. Homeboy Beautiful, no. 1, 1978. ONE Archives at the USC Libraries. © the artist and Ortuzar Projects, New York; Raymond Pettibon. Tripping Corpse Four, 1984. Collection Philip Aarons and Shelley Fox Aarons. © Raymond Pettibon, courtesy the artist and David Zwirner. (Photo: David Vu); G. B. Jones and Bruce LaBruce. J.D.s, no. 1, 1986. Collection Bruce LaBruce. © the artists. (Photo: David Vu); G. B. Jones and Bruce LaBruce. J.D.s, no. 2 (detail), 1986. Collection Bruce LaBruce. © the artists (Photo: David Vu); Tammy Rae Carland. I ♥ Amy Carter, no. 5 (detail), Summer 1994. Collection the artist. © and courtesy the artist and Jessica Silverman, San Francisco; Mark Morrisroe and Lynelle White. Dirt, no. 4, 1977. Collection Willie Alexander. © The Estate of Mark Morrisroe (EMM). (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, Evan McKnight); Tammy Rae Carland. I ♥ Amy Carter, no. 4, January 1994. Collection the artist. © and courtesy the artist and Jessica Silverman, San Francisco; Mark Gonzales. Broken Poems, n.d. Collection Philip Aarons and Shelley Fox Aarons. © Mark Gonzales. (Photo: David Vu); Lisa Baumgardner. Bikini Girl, vol. 1. no. 5, 1980. Collection Philip Aarons and Shelley Fox Aarons. (Photo: David Vu); Raymond Pettibon. The Charm of Vice (detail), 1988. Collection Philip Aarons and Shelley Fox Aarons. (Photo: David Vu); Tammy Rae Carland. I ♥ Amy Carter, no. 4 (detail), January 1994; Mark Morrisroe and Lynelle White. Dirt, no. 1 (detail), 1975. Collection Willie Alexander. © The Estate of Mark Morrisroe (EMM). (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, Evan McKnight); Mark Morrisroe and Lynelle White. Dirt, no. 1, 1975. Collection Willie Alexander. © The Estate of Mark Morrisroe (EMM). (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, Evan McKnight); Tammy Rae Carland. I ♥ Amy Carter, no. 5 (detail), Summer 1994; Raymond Pettibon. Misadventures [with Nelson Tarpenny] (detail), 1989. © Raymond Pettibon, courtesy the artist and David Zwirner. (Photo: David Vu); Lisa Baumgardner. Bikini Girl, vol. 1, no. 7 (detail), 1980. Collection Philip Aarons and Shelley Fox Aarons (Photo: David Vu); Raymond Pettibon. Misadventures [with Nelson Tarpenny] (detail), 1989.