Hi Friend by Jess Hilliard / Chris Johanson

Plazm designed this book by Jess Hilliard in 2004 and just recently unearthed a few copies from their vaults. Letterpress cover by Stumptown Press. Published by Harrell Fletcher. You can read some of Jess's text on Harrell's web site. Drawings by Chris Johanson. The first edition is out of print and these are the few remaining copies left, get em' while you can.

I just recently became a fan of Plazm Magazine. It's got great art, photography and the design is top notch- not to mention it's printed on a nice thick matte feel good paper. Check out the latest issue #29 it's a got a couple spreads of Seripop!

Plazm 29 "To hell with the new." So begins the newest issue of Plazm, the Pacific Northwest's premier art, culture, and design magazine. Plazm's largest issue ever clocks in at 160 pages of photography, art, and interviews featuring Yoko Ono, Art Chantry, Sue Coe, Storm Tharp, Todd Haynes, and JD Samson (formerly of Le Tigre), among many others. A release party is set for September 26 at the Ace Hotel in Portland with bands, DJ's, and an "End of War" art exhibit.

Plazm #29 delves into our culture's collective memory, from a collectible poster of Portland's DIY music history to previously unpublished photographs of Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe, unearthed by Thomas Robinson. Paintings of Bob Dylan by Todd Haynes, director of Far from Heaven, Velvet Goldmine, and the upcoming Dylan biopic I'm Not There, are published here for the first time. Yoko Ono says the flag-waving days of the '60s should be behind us, while Andrew Hultkrans traces ominous similarities between the Nixon administration and current politics.

Current life in Iraq, in the States, and in Portland are represented in photography by unembedded photographers, Robbie McLaren, and Daniel Peterson. Seripop's mind-blowing psychedelic poster designs make a splash along with new fiction from Domenick Ammirati. Curator Stephanie Snyder engages artist Jessica Jackson Hutchins in conversation, and Sarah Gottesdiener talks art, music, and queer culture with JD Samson. One section asks designers, writers, and performance artists to address the idea of "The End of War," with pieces by Alex Lilly, Marvin Bell, Rebeca Méndez and Adam Eeuwens, Lidia Yuknavitch, and Jamie McMurry, among others.

Peter Thompson - In a Rage! - Zine

Zine / Artist Book

In a Rage! - An art zine by Peter Thompson.

New Release - 2 colour (Green & Gold) book of  drawings Peter produced while in Victoria for the Brain Trust book launch and exhibition. Released at Expozine 2009 in Montréal.

• 12 Two Colour Pages • 5.5 x 8.5 Inches • Printed with soy based inks • Edition of 100 • More Info | Purchase (Available November 16th)

James Kirkpatrick - A Dog Named Dracula - Zine

Zine / Artist Book

A Dog Named Dracula - A zine by James Kirkpatrick.

A book of colourful abstract characters. Released at Expozine 2009 in Montréal. This zine showcases multi colour drawings James produced while in Victoria for the Brain Trust book launch and exhibition.

• 16  Multi-Colour Pages • 5.5 x 8.5 Inches • Printed with soy based inks • Edition of 100 • More Info | Purchase (Available November 16th)

Carrera’s Pictorial Webster’s: Mini-Documentary

In 1995 John Carrera found an old 1898 Webster's International Dictionary under his grandfathers reading chair. Over the next ten years Carrera would organize and print 4,000 of the estimated 13,000 engravings now owned by Yale University.

The labels for the engravings were composed, cast and redistributed on a 1938 Linotype Model A. This machine is an amazing feat of engineering and a beautiful showcase of what is possible without the use of electronics.

After printing, the signatures are folded and cut by hand, holes are punch for sewing, signatures are then sewn together. The spines are then pasted up, edges trimmed and page edges are decorated with multiple layers of coloured rubber stamps. Boards are attached for the hardcover. Various leather techniques are uses to cover the boards and create the cover as well as decorate. Raised accents on the spine, letterpress gold leaf labels, and designs embeded into the leather cover are some of the decorations which adorn the book.

This mini documentary highlights the process of reproducing a book of these beautiful engravings. It also provides us a glimpse at what we take for granted and a appreciation at the patience and craftsmanship of the ol' time book binder as well as many other dying art forms. Long live the book and it's appreciation.

Anteism Publishing at Expozine 2009

Anteism will have a table at this years Expozine. We will be showcasing our new multi-coloured zine "Canadian Haircut Cut" by Peter Thompson and James Kirkpatrick as well as two brand new individual artist books by the the duo.

Expozine, Montreal’s annual small press, comic and zine fair, will take place on Saturday, November 14 and Sunday, November 15, 2009, from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. at 5035 St-Dominique (Église Saint-Enfant Jésus, between St-Joseph and Laurier, near Laurier Métro). Free admission.

The opening party, featuring readings and live music, will take place Friday, November 13, at Sky Blue Door, 5403B St. Laurent (side door), 7 – 11 p.m., free admission.

This incredible event brings together nearly 300 creators of all kinds of printed matter – from books to zines to posters and graphic novels – in both English and French. In the past eight years, Expozine has become one of North America's largest small press fairs, attracting thousands of visitors as well as exhibitors from as far as France, New York, Philadelphia, Toronto, Ottawa, Halifax, Vancouver and Quebec City!

Come discover a universe of publications and printed works that is hard to find anywhere, much less all in the same room! It’s also a rare opportunity to meet hundreds of young and emerging authors, publishers and artists, and see what the winners of last year’s Expozine Alternative Press Awards are up to.

This year for the first time there will also be a program of discussions and readings running throughout the event, as well as an opening party on Friday, November 13 (details to be announced). Not to be missed!

Expozine is made possible through the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Conseil des Arts de Montréal.

Free DIY Artist Book by Warren Craghead

Warren Craghead has released a new do it yourself book called a circle, a sphere. Download the PDF, print the book on your printer and blam you got yourself a rad little zine. View Craghead's previous free book / zine "The Surf and the Face."

Canada's Largest Zine Fair - Canzine

Canzine is Canada's largest celebration of small press publishing and "alternative culture", hosted by the rad magazine Broken Pencil. The event features over 150 zines from across Canada, as well as all day underground film and video open screening, panel discussions, readings and more. Below are two articles about this years event Canzine 2009.

BlogTO: Canzine 2009 All About Indie Video Games, Kooky Zines, Collaborative Comics, Unflattering Portraits, Graphic Tees and More

Torontoist: Can-Can-Canzine!

Chris Jordan - Receipt for the production of humans

Chris Jordan's photographic work is a receipt for the production of humans. His series Running the Numbers utilizes a mass quantity of objects to make a whole image. When your looking at the image just remember that your one of those specks which makes the portrait.

Jordan's new series entitled Midway - Message from the Gyre is gut wrenching. The images are similar in style to a still life of a bowl of fruit, but the bowl is the remains of a young albatross chick. These birds starved to death or suffered from other complications due to eating (what they thought was food ) plastic. These bright coloured, half recognizable shards seem like parasites which have outlasted their host. I don't want to sound like a tinfoil hatter but don't these images seem like a warning sign of sorts???

"These photographs of albatross chicks were made just a few weeks ago on Midway Atoll, a tiny stretch of sand and coral near the middle of the North Pacific. The nesting babies are fed bellies-full of plastic by their parents, who soar out over the vast polluted ocean collecting what looks to them like food to bring back to their young. On this diet of human trash, every year tens of thousands of albatross chicks die on Midway from starvation, toxicity, and choking.

To document this phenomenon as faithfully as possible, not a single piece of plastic in any of these photographs was moved, placed, manipulated, arranged, or altered in any way. These images depict the actual stomach contents of baby birds in one of the world's most remote marine sanctuaries, more than 2000 miles from the nearest continent."

Pith - Artist Zine by Charlotte Cynthia Walton

Pith - {The Heart Of }{The Essence} is an art zine by Victoria artist Charlotte Cynthia Walton AKA C.C. Walton. The zine highlights works from Charlottes sketchbook, scans from 3 dimensional paper sculptures and paper cut-outs. Available: $6.00

• 8.5"x5.5" • 28 pg • 2 Colour Screen Printed Cover • Vellum Insert Title Page • Numbered Edition of 100

Canadian Haircut Cut Zine

Canadian Haircut Cut is a new zine by James Kirkpatrick and Peter Thompson. The zine was created in Victoria while the Brain Trust duo was here for their book launch. Each of the 16 pages is a two colour print, printed with soy based inks. The zine printed on a finicky 1980's multi-colour printing machine - show signs of glitches and mis-registration making each zine slightly different. The process is similar to screen-printing so each image is comprised of two drawings which combined produce the two colours. • 16 pages printed in Blue, Metallic Gold, Red, Purple, Black and Green • 5.5"x8.5" • Numbered Edition of 100 • 24lb Acid Free Paper (In case you plan on living Forever!)

Available | Price - $6.00

Sample Pages: ( Have you heard that new song by NOFX about Tegan or was it Sara? )

4 Issues of Cold Heat Comic Free Online

Cold Heat is a comic written by Ben Jones (Paper Rad) and drawn by Frank Santoro (Storeyville), Cold Heat is the story of Castle, an 18 year old girl who embarks on a life altering adventure through anti-depressants, corporate rock'n'roll, globalization and sex.

Cold Heat is a hypnotically tranced out, maximum volume take on the action/adventure genre that stays out all night and doesn't come home until the party's over and it's time to crash.

Cold Heat is a ten issue comic. 6 issues have been published so far. Read the first four issues online. Buy issues 5 and 6 at Picturebox. Issues 7 and 8 will be available at SPX.

Alternative Press Expo - San Francisco

Anteism will be sharing a table at  Alternative Press Expo with James Kirkpatrick and Islands Fold this weekend (October 17th-18th 2009) in San Francisco. APE is one of the most popular and vibrant alternative comics exhibitions in the U.S. We are excited to be releasing a new zine by C.C. Walton and a collaborative multi-colour zine by the Brain Trust duo, James Kirkpatirck and Peter Thompson. Charlotte Cynthia Walton's zine is a collection of works created over the last couple of years from sketchbook drawings, paintings and her rad paper cut-outs. The Thompson/Kirkpatrick zine entitled "Canadian Haircut Cut" has been painstakingly created on a rebuilt risograph machine. Purple, blue, red, burgundy, gold, green and good old black have all been used in this rad artist book. The two new zines will be available online after APE.

If you are in SF come by and give us a visit at APE. We're at table 150.

APE 2009

Saturday, Oct. 17 / 11am - 7pm Sunday, Oct. 18/ 11am - pm

The Concourse 620 7th Street San Francisco directions

If  your around the Haight street / Fillmore area come by and check out a mural going up by Luke Ramsey, Doodles and Zosen in collab with Upper Playground.

All the Books You’ll Never Catch on a Kindle

The New York Times has a good article about the New York Art Book Fair and the 60 newcomers introduced to the lineup this year. Anteism being one of them. The exhibitors list is impressive.

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If you harbor even a speck of doubt about the continuing viability of hold-in-your-hand-and-turn-the-pages print publications, check out the New York Art Book Fair this weekend. You’ll find thousands of new books — smart, weird, engrossing, beautiful — that will never be Kindle-compatible. They’ll make you feel good.

The fair, produced by Printed Matter, a venerable local purveyor and producer of books by artists, began in Chelsea in 2006 but this year is at P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center in Long Island City, Queens. The move meant giving up ready foot traffic for a big gain in floor space. Whether the trade will pay off remains to be seen, but for certain the fair, once a modest event and now quite a grand one, looks great.

More than 200 exhibitors — booksellers, independent publishers, artists, antiquarian dealers — fill three floors of P.S. 1’s cavernous premises with plenty of breathing room: some of the displays look like full-fledged gallery shows. The recession has scared off a few big trade publishers, but they’ve been more than adequately replaced by 60 newcomers from Japan, South Korea, Mexico and elsewhere, many of them low on cash but high on risk tolerance.

Read more of the article on the New York Times website.

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Spur of the moment rant about the Kindle:

The Kindle (a digital ebook reading device) has some important and valid uses, but like the NYT's mentions there is no way "these" books can be replaced by a digital reader. Partially due to the fact that the people reading these books, love "books". The digital displays of the kindle look good but they're still lacking the tactile feel of the pages, smell of fresh print, ease of use and the basic fact that you can't lend or give away the book as a gift. You can't display them on your shelf, use them to swat annoying flies, prop open doors or even recycle them. I don't think that "books" on the kindle should even be called "books". A large majority of books will inevitably be read on digital readers in the future, but look back in a couple years and laugh when you find a Kindle in your local Value Village thrift store, there's a long way to go.

Amazon's Kindle and other digitally downloaded books have taken half the fun out of books, you no longer have to leave your house. I personally enjoy spending time in the bookstore, browsing physical books and talking to the staff. In an era where our communication seems to be getting fed to us through powerful new channels, we have devised one more reason to go with the flow. I welcome the addition of digital readers, I just wish they could work in unison with a stable technology that we have all grown to love, ink on paper.

Hot Potatoe a New Book by Marc Bell

Anteism Publishing will have a table down in San Francisco for Alternative Press Expo ( APE ) and I'm really excited to meet other exhibitors, people checking the festival and exploring the city itself. I'm also stoked to check out the new Marc Bell book!!! Marc Bell's work is constantly negotiating between disparate influences including comics, folk art, popular culture and Fine Art. Embedded in his drawings is complex and layered wordplay that allude to these influences while remaining deeply funny. Bell's works vary from pen and ink drawings colored with subtle watercolors, to comics, to elaborate mixed media cardboard constructions, and, put all together for the first time in HOT POTATOE, provide a comprehensive portrait of a multi-talented and influential contemporary artist. Marc Bell's book HOT POTATOE shall be released this October through Drawn and Quarterly. Marc Bell Interview at Fecal Face

Marc Bell's work can also be seen in his collaborations with Peter Thompson and James Kirkpatrick in the book Brain Trust.

Anteism Publishing @ New York Art Book Fair

Anteism will be at this years New York Art Book Fair, sharing a table with our com-padres Islands Fold. Come by and say hi to Harley, checkout our titles and get a sneak peak at what's to come. We would like to give a special thanks to Canada Council for the Arts & the Department of Canadian Heritage for the support which helped us be at the show. We are especially excited to be taking part in this years fair because Canada is a featured Country.

A record 24 Canadian exhibitors will attend the fourth annual NY Art Book Fair 2009 in New York City from October 2 – 4 with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Department of Canadian Heritage. The Fair hosts over 200 international presses, booksellers, antiquarian dealers, and independent artist/publishers presenting a diverse range of the best in contemporary art publications.

This year Canada is the featured country so the Fair will include a special Canadian reception on Friday, October 2. The event will feature art projects by Daniel Barrow and Allyson Mitchell, current recipients of the Canada Council for the Arts International Residency Program – International Studio and Curatorial Program in New York.

The Canadian exhibitors represent a cross-section of the visual arts publishing industry in Canada. Collectively, these exhibitors have a history (either directly or within their membership) of publishing art magazines, books about art, monographs, exhibition catalogues and limited-edition artists' works. Their publications represent artists and works produced and exhibited in Canada and available for export, either as direct publication sales, as traveling exhibitions, or in relation to international exhibition and publishing opportunities for Canadian artists.

Canadian exhibitors include:

Halifax – Halifax, INK. (a consortium comprising Dalhousie Art Gallery, Eyelevel Gallery, Mount Saint Vincent University Art Gallery, NSCAD Press (Nova Scotia College of Art & Design), Saint Mary's University Art Gallery)

Montreal – Anteism, Conundrum Press, Dazibao centre de photographies actuelles, Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Regroupement des centres d'artistes autogérés du Québec (RCAAQ)

Toronto – Art Metropole, Bywater Bros. Editions, Fabulous Fictions and Peculiar Practices, Ryan Dodgson, YYZBOOKS

Winnipeg – BorderCrossings, Plug In ICA/Plug In Editions

Vancouver – Artspeak, Charles H. Scott Gallery, Emily Carr University Press, Fillip, Presentation House Gallery, Pyramid Power

N. Pender Island, BC – Islands Fold

Brain Trust Book Launch & Art Show

The Brain Trust book launch and art exhibition at the Boucherat Gallery in Victoria. Peter Thompson & James Kirkpatrick hung their drawings from the Brain Trust book and played an improv music set.

Brain Trust Interviewed in Monday Magazine

Peter Thompson and James Kirkpatrick have a been interviewed in the current issue of Monday Magazine.

Pump up the Jam

By: Amanda Farrell

Peter Thompson and James Kirkpatrick get in each others’ heads

It’s obvious that Peter Thompson and James Kirkpatrick feed off each other. Really, one need only look as far as the two London, Ontario artists’ new book, Brain Trust—an eclectic, quirky collection of pen-and-ink drawings and paintings—for evidence, but their collaborative creativity is corroborated by the e-mail interview we did. The duo, who have been creating work together since 2000, answered the questions while sitting in a laundromat (I guess they even wash their clothes together) and say there’s not really any set way that their co-produced pieces happen.

“Sometimes we talk about what we want to use, like paint or just pen or something, but other than that we pretty much just let it happen,” says Kirkpatrick, who also raps under the Thesis moniker. (The two will also be doing a musical performance at their book launch Saturday.) “Sometimes a pen piece will turn into a colour thing.”

Thompson adds, “Yeah, we don’t need to ‘talk’ about anything, we are geniuses.” To which Kirkpatrick replies, “We have the Brain Trust.”

Well, now we know where the book title comes from.

However it works, know the end result is rad-tastic. The line drawings and paintings (Thompson has a background in zine-making while Kirkpatrick comes from the graffiti-art scene) have a real whimsical quality to them, often with strange characters having stranger conversations with one another (“Whoever has something they want to write down on the pieces writes it down there, and it is awesome,” Thompson says of the dialogue.) The two not only collaborate with each other, but with artists like Beau Labute, Rosie Cook and Marc Bell. Of those artists, Kirkpatrick says, “Let me tell you, by no means are they back-up singers.”

Jam-style pieces are a bit unusual in the visual-art realm, but Thompson and Kirkpatrick find working with other artists to be really rewarding.

“I don’t have to rely on my own sorry-assed solo stuff,” says Thompson. Says Kirkpatrick: “Have you ever had ice cream that was melting and you put it back in the freezer? And a month later you find it and are like, ‘stoked!’ It’s kind of like that, except it’s Peter showing up at my parents’ basement with bourbon.”

Sounds like a recipe for good art to me. M

Brain Trust Book Launch

Noon, Saturday, September 26

Boucherat Gallery, 16 ¬Ω Fan Tan

Free • boucheratgallery.com

Rifflandia Concert Poster Screenprints

The Rifflandia Music Festival starts tonight here in Victoria, British Columbia. Anteism worked with Olio , who have commissioned 12 premier poster artists from throughout North America to celebrate this year’s festival’s performers with 12 original posters to be printed & framed as numbered edition 18x24” serigraphs. The result - Live!Stock 09, Posters can be viewed around Victoria in store windows, the Rifflandia headquarters on lower Pandora and in the Olio Gallery.

Olio 614 1/2 Fisgard Street. The exhibition is open throughout Rifflandia from Noon-8pm, with viewing hours otherwise being Mon-Fri 4-8pm and Sat-Sun Noon-5pm.

Live!Stock 09 Artists Roster Travis Bone, Furturtle Printworks (US) - www.travisbone.com • Pink Mountaintops Sat. Sept 26th • Sugar Michael DeForge (ON) - www.kingtrash.com • Cuff the Duke Fri. Sept. 25th • Sugar Evan Pine (BC) •Tegan & Sara Friday Sept. 25th • Alix Goolden Hall Shawn O’Keefe (BC) - www.thewoodpilecollective.blogspot.com • Final Fantasy Thurs. Sept. 24 • Alix Goolden Hall Matt Pfahlert (US) - www.getacluedesign.com • Mother Mother Fri. Sept. 25 • Market Square Brandon Velestuk (BC) - www.wearescum.com • Beach House Thurs. Sept. 24 • Sugar Christopher Bradford (BC) - www.wearescum.com • Bogus Tokus Sat. Sept. 26 • Lucky Bar Meaghan MacDonald (BC) • Holy Fuck Sat. Sept. 26 • Element Trevor Basset (US) - www.brevortasset.com • Johnny & the Moon Thurs. Sept 24 • Sugar Joey MacDonald (BC) - www.bolocreative.ca • Basia Bulat Thurs. Sept 24 • Metro Theatre Ryan Thompson (BC) - www.anteism.com • Buck 65 Sat. Sept 26 • Market Square Julie McLaughlin (AB) - www.whatwouldjuliedraw.com • Timber TimbreThurs. Sept 24 • Alix Goolden Hall

Some snap shot photos of the poster screen printing process. From screen to final product.

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Peter Taylor - New Artwork, Prints & T-shirts

Peter Taylor returns to Victoria with a beautiful new collection of artwork to exhibit at the Boucherat Gallery. The Vancouver artist will exhibit his intricate patterned pencil drawings (must be seen in person) and collages along with t-shirts and prints.

Opening September 12th @ 7pm Live DJ to perform as well! Drinks and fun!

Peter Taylors artwork can be found in the following books: The Feast, Manuscribbles, Abracadabra & theMake

Taylor's Artist Statement from a previous show at Ayden Gallery really sums up his work.

"Peter Taylor’s new solo exhibition Divine Play marks a continuation of the artist’s fascination with spirituality viewed through the contemplative lens of recurring characters. As with his previous work, Taylor’s paintings focus on a single figure whose facial expressions and bodily positions exude a combination of playfulness and meditative contentment. With Divine Play, Taylor has presented his most cohesive and striking depiction of these figures to date: “these are my personal sages, Taylor explains. They represent “seeds sprouting knowledge, wisdom, and understanding. In light of his generation’s increasing tendency towards cynicism and disingenuousness, these characters are a breath of fresh air, not only encouraging contemplative reflection, but similarly eschewing cliché and taboo through the knowing humour of their expressions and unselfconscious activity." Read More

Tamara Bond - Drawings, Paintings & Books

Tamara Bond graduated from Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design with a degree in Visual Arts in 2001. Her contemporary figurative drawings and books have been shown across Canada.  She has received a Canada Council Grant, a Saskatchewan Arts Board Grant and is a collective member of Jackpine Press. Her drawing process involves creating imaginary characters and narratives, which are often based on real events and experiences.  Using collage, mixed media, and rubber stamps as a rudimentary printmaking method, Bond experiments with the limits of drawing, painting and imagination in an effort to create harmony between reality and fantasy.

Tamara Bond's artwork can be found in the book Abracadabra

Bond's next solo exhibition will be in the upper gallery of the Vancouver Bau-Xi Gallery, September, 2009.

Artist Statement I am attracted to illusion, particularly that which resonates a bit of familiarity from our physical world, but is not of this place. I am interested in telling stories through my work about my home, my history and my changing place in the world. The character I have been using is transformed slightly every time, yet her face remains the same. Out of a need for efficiency and playfulness in my process, I created a stamp to work on this drawing. The image of the stamp is of a face, drawn from a doll, which was made from my likeness. She has appeared in my work for a couple of years now as the main character in many drawings, a series of flash animations and has starred as the lead in many puppet shows. It is through this character that I negotiate many ideas and new landscapes. Her body changes shape to negotiate the situation I have drawn her into- as a creature, a winged woman, or swimming through water. It is necessary for me to find play in making work, and it is often through the process of printmaking that this happens. I am delighted by the reproduction, pattern, similarity, efficiency and familiarity of this process.