Visit Zine Scene! A History of Zines at Special Collections

Zine Scene! A History of Zines at Special Collections

Visit Zine Scene! A History of Zines at Special Collections, on display on the 7th floor at W.A.C. Bennett Library

Six different punk zines from the 1980s to 1990s: Public Enemy, SCHtuff..., Snot Rag, Ken Lester's Poetry, Animals Fight Back! and FotoPunk.

Eleven different contemporary zines layered on top of each other, including feminist zines, literary zines, compilation zines, personal zines (perzines) and others.

Zines help us trace the history of how we write our own histories and how we network around the histories of those who share stories with us.

—Lucy Robinson, Zines and History: Zines as History*

What is a zine?

A zine — derived from magazine or fanzine — is a small DIY publication, often self-published, self-created, and self-distributed, and frequently made by a single person for a small circulation. Zines are non-commercial and provide a space as an alternative means for self-expression outside of mainstream publishing. 

Zines can be a mode of empowerment and advocacy for individuals in marginalized or otherwise less-empowered communities. Even today, zine makers continue this desire to share knowledge and experience outside of mainstream models of publishing and knowledge production.  

About the exhibit

Take a journey through the history of zines through materials in SFU Special Collections and Rare Books. From early scrapbooks, little magazines, poetry chapbooks, punk zines, and contemporary zines, discover how these small but mighty publications provided a space to share stories, build solidarity, and push against convention.  

What's on display?

  • Poetry chapbooks, including early editions of Bruno Chapbooks (1915) and The Chapbook (1925)
  • Little magazines from the 1960s to 1980s, including Ganglia, Iron, and blewointment
  • Punk fanzines like Snot Rag, photozines, and other punk music zines
  • Contemporary chapbooks and zines, including perzines, compzines, political zines, and special collections zines
  • Zines from behind the reference desk (zines made by SFU Library staff and librarians)

Detail of a selection of older poetry chapbooks, including the Poetry Bookshop periodical, The Chapbook (1925) in the front of the image.

Many different little magazines layered on top of one another, including grOnk, Ganglia, talon, Iron, and blewointment.

Detail of the chapbook collection Avant Canada (2014) featuring poems by many different Canadian poets. Each poem is printed on a sheet of paper folded into an iscosoles triangle.

Learn more!

Discover more resources related to zines and alt-publishing curated by SFU Library in our Publishing Resources Guide.

Want to see more little magazines and alt-publishing in Special Collections? Check out our research guides on little mags and small press.

References

*Robinson, Lucy. "Zines and History: Zines as History." In Ripped, Torn, and Cut: Pop, Politics and Punk Fanzines, from 1976, edited by Subcultures Network, 39-54. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2018. https://muse.jhu.edu/book/78709.

Date(s)
September 3 to December 31
Location
7th floor, W.A.C. Bennett Library (SFU Burnaby)
Contact for further information
For further information, contact Andréa Tarnawsky (andrea_tarnawsky@sfu.ca) or Special Collections and Rare Books (scrb@sfu.ca).