Publishing as Artistic Practice

The traditional publishing framework has been cast adrift: what opportunities are surfacing in its stead?
What does it mean to publish today? In the face of a changing media landscape, institutional upheavals, and discursive shifts in the legal, artistic, and political fields, concepts of ownership, authorship, work, accessibility, and publicity are being renegotiated. The field of publishing not only stands at the intersection of these developments but is also introducing new ruptures. How the traditional publishing framework has been cast adrift, and which opportunities are surfacing in its stead, is discussed here by artists, publishers, and scholars through the examination of recent publishing concepts emerging from the experimental literature and art scene, where publishing is often part of an encompassing artistic practice. The number and diversity of projects among the artists, writers, and publishers concerned with these matters show that it is time to move the question of publishing from the margin to the center of aesthetic and academic discourse. 

The cover displays all the participants’ names and the title, set in Kedai-Kedai Merdeka, a hybrid typeface created by the Malaysian type design and research collective Huruf. Inside the covers is a reproduction of a book-cover-shaped mural we contributed to the eponymous kick-off exhibition (Art Sonje Center, 2020), which asks about the fundamental motives and premises of publishing. Here, the work is reduced back to a book-cover size and resides as if it were taken from another book and recycled inside-out for this publication.