BANDEL, Jan-Frederik; GILBERT, Annette; PRILL, Tania (eds.)
Under the Radar. Underground Zines and Self-Publications 1965-1975

The mid-1960s witnessed a boom in underground and selfpublished works. Hectographs, mimeographs, and offset printing not only allowed for the production of small, lowcost 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 first appeared 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. [publisher's note]

Published by Spector Books, 2019
Exhibition Catalogues / Art History / Book Culture / Counterculture / Graphic Design