Just making good shit with great people.

Not really a publisher

We do make books, but we don’t do what traditional publishing houses do. Maybe because we aren’t really a publishing house, to be honest. We like that there are no rules in our workshop. Imagine it, make it. We only do 50 copies max. of each edition, and we like to make it all by hand. Going back to when artists’ books were actual pieces of art. Sounds tiring, but the freedom is gruesomely addictive. Sometimes even worth it. Anything becomes possible. Think: political manifesto on e-girls, fan letter series to the prime minister of Emerald City, or an intimate catalog of lost pet posters… We can go fancy fancy with lots of booyah, or we can go bootleg squint-your-eyes pixelated. Where the industry relentlessly says ‘unviable’, we say — let’s go.

Books

We make artists’  books. That’s a loaded term, and honestly, imposter syndrome already kicks in. Lippard states artist books have numerous aspects to them but are always done by or with the artist. We believe this notion has been hijacked by publishers and we attempt to reclaim it. Lending our knowledge and skill, we converse with the artists and talk about their artistic practice, what it’s about and then start puzzling the book as a continuation of their work, extending crossmedium towards the carrier which is a book.

Through written word or experimental printing processes, the book takes shape. A process of trial and error and feedback. There is no optimal financial way of making artist books, just a discovery of a new medium. The medium surpasses its form and becomes content itself.

Sissyphus is happy in his struggles, we thrive in the distress of printer errors, a cutting machine going crazy or silk-screened covers that receive ink splatters. Each book ends up, with a margin of error, as a passion project of discovery for the artist, the copyshop— and the reader.