Under the Radar: Underground Zines and Self-Publications 1965 – 1975

Spector Books, 2019, Spiral-bound, 368 pages, 33.5 x 22.5 cm

New / sealed copy, second edition

The mid-1960s witnessed a boom in underground and self-published works. Hectographs, mimeographs, and offset printing not only allowed for the production of small, low-cost print runs but also promote a unique aesthetic: using wild mock-ups, »messianic amateurs« combined typescript aesthetics, handwriting, scribbled drawings, assemblages of collaged visuals, porn photos, snapshots, and comic strips. The typography consciously frees itself, in parallel to a liberalization of linguistic and visual forms of expression in the name of a new sensibility. This book (which appears in conjunction with an exhibition at the Weserburg in Bremen) is the first to present the underground and self-published works that came out of West Germany in such depth, while also showing the international context in which they emerged: not as an anecdotal history but as an attempt to tap into the aesthetic cosmos of a Do-It-Yourself rebellion, one that also challenges us to take a new look at the current boom in »independent publishing«, the risograph aesthetic, and so on.