TEN YEARS AGO, graphic designers Brian Eder and Cherri Lakey opened an art gallery called Anno Domini with the intention of fostering monthly subculture-art receptions in San Jose. Located in an unmarked warehouse in the industrial badlands near Diridon Station, the gallery quickly gained an underground following thanks to its regular events, one of which was an annual “Art of Zines” show.
Originally shortened from the word “fanzines,” zines are homemade, tiny-circulation, self-distributed, do-it-yourself communiqués devoted to any subject one can imagine. They range from sublime, colorful packages to abysmal 20th-generation photocopied eyesores. The producers distribute them for pennies on the dollar or often just leave them anywhere for anyone to pick up and read.
Eder and Lakey staged their first zines show in 2001. As both designers and artists in an age where academic bureaucrats are hell-bent on separating those two disciplines, Eder and Lakey reveled in the art-and-design crossover mentality inherent in many of the zines. The aesthetic reminded the two gallery owners of themselves.
“When working as graphic designers, the projects we enjoyed the most were the ones we could be passionate about, where we could put some of our own personality into it,” Lakey explained. “Those were the clients we enjoyed the most and the jobs we enjoyed the most.”
And when viewing many of these zines, one really gets a glimpse into the personalities and mind-sets of the artists. The passion and dedication of those who create zines is even more bizarre knowing that absolutely nothing is expected in return. No one’s trying to make any money out of this.
“The resourcefulness of the do-it-yourself spirit is incredible in the zinester community,” Lakey said. “They take all this time and effort—the passion is just amazing. And then to just go and leave it in a cafe with a hope that some random person will pick it up and read it. Who does that without getting paid? Or any fame?”
Since 2005, Anno Domini has been located on South First Street and was just voted 43rd in Juxtapoz Magazine‘s list of Top 100 galleries and museums in the country. As people from all over the world continue to send in their zines, Lakey and Eder are amassing a “zine library” for future shows and/or projects. “How you can throw them away?” Lakey said. “This is a little tiny particle of someone’s soul.”
About 300–400 new zines comprise the current show. All a visitor has to do is walk into the gallery and find a few titles to identify with. I chose Media Whore, Scumbags and Superstars, Functionally Ill and Cranky Buddha. That last one features an octopus on the cover and advertises “Religious tomfoolery, 17th-century dildo poems and much more.”
And the zines don’t just arrive by postal mail. At the opening last Feb. 5 for South First Friday, a few local zinemakers manned tables and hawked their stuff. One titled San Jose I’ll Keep You: A Travelogue by Kate Saturday features an entire streetscape of all the South First Street galleries and art venues. Admittedly inspired by Anno Domini’s activities over the years, the homemade booklet includes oddball scenes from the local landscape, including a donut shop, the Rosicrucian Museum and a peculiar tree at Stevens Creek Boulevard and Finch. The artist’s website is www.confoundedcontraption.com—which makes one wonder: If these people have websites, why are they constructing homemade print booklets to disseminate their information?
“I know it’s circular reasoning, and it doesn’t make sense all the time,” said Lakey. “Why have something tactile and in 3-D when you can just put a blog up? But it’s different; it’s in the moment of making these things and putting them out and having something tangible that is never going away. I don’t care what anybody says about the end of print. This culture is not going away.”
THE ART OF ZINES runs through March 13 at Anno Domini, 366 S. First St., San Jose. (408.271.5155)
