After visiting the Nexus Art Cafe a few times in the past, I found interesting to find out it was also the home to Salford Zine Library. From visiting the cafe before and never knowing of its existence, it appears to be quite the hidden gem; also a shame that it is so hidden away.
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| Salford Zine Library |
As seen from the picture above, the library is a cosy little area where you can sit and enjoy the different zines in a comfortable atmosphere. What first took my interest is the display of the zines; firstly there was the immediate difference in size of the zines, which in turn deliberated how they were displayed. The larger zines displayed on a book shelf just like a book would be displayed, using this display method it is then impossible to know what you are picking up therefore it can be both surprising and interesting to see what you discover. The smaller zines however are displayes face forward on little shelves, I much prefer this display technique, as firstly you know what your picking up, as well as you get the front covers of all the different zines together to create a collage of different images and text.
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| Skull Study by James Dodd |
It is one of the smaller zines that took my main interest. A properly bound notepad that had been filled with skull based images and text. One of the pages contained a little typewriter printed note saying 'JAMESDODDARTKANKER', there was also a myspace address given but unfortunately the address no longer seems active. This led me to search the Salford Zine Library Blog where I happened to come across a post named 'Package from New Zealand, full of Australian zines?', an image had been uploaded on the post and there I recognised the cover of the zine I had taken my interest in.
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| Zine Library Blog Post |
This suggests that the zine has been sent from the New Zealand, however the blog gave no information of this apart from the title of the post; it might be then interesting to contact the library and see if they know anything of the zines origin.
What drew my attention mostly about the zine was the great little illustrations created from so many different formats, there was printed, drawn, painted, and stitched images. In my own zine I would like draw together a lot of different medias so this took my interest. Being mostly an image based zine with only the few occasional pieces of text I took this to be an enjoyable zine to look through, being delighted with each different page.
The only disadvantages I see to this particular zine when thinking of my own project is the cost and time it would take to create each one. Each page being hand created and put together in a properly bound mini sketchbook takes both a lot of time and money, however this considered I like this overall finish the best.
