"The book is a machine to think with," said literary critic I. A. Richards. "This machine kills fascists," said folk singer Woody Guthrie. Leaving logical syllogisms aside, we’re taking the liberty here to declare that books kill fascists.
That they have always done so pretty much since the dawn of printing, and that they still do today, is reflected in this, our first e-catalogue. Demands for justice motivate every item to transcend the basic utilitarianism of communication and commerce, and instead to contend that beautiful and thoughtful design can itself confront and combat the engines of oppression. These books, posters, and prints wed aesthetic beauty to the urgency of a cause—women's rights, anti-fascism, labor movements, immigration justice, racial equality, and LGBTQIA representation, among many others. With just vehemence, they claim that we cannot merely survive, nor remain passive in the face of the greedy destruction of freedoms. We are instead called to build our own machines, more beautiful and more truthful than before.
The organization of the catalogue follows a chronology of protests, from the Arion Press Constitution and its establishment of fundamental, self-evident rights, to Maureen Cummins's archival address of refugee migration and Mary Heebner's photographic contemplation of the fragility of the Arctic. Represented is a cross-section of global concerns, including apartheid South Africa, nuclear disarmament in West Germany, the working class in Mexico, the economic and social constraints of Castro's Cuba, the trauma of the World Wars in Britain, and the joys of Senegalese community action in New York City. We know, too, that the political is always personal, as demonstrated in Fritz Best's painterly celebration of transness, Lisa Kokin's readymade meditations on sexuality and consumerism, and twenty unopened packs of AIDS awareness trading cards.
It is our belief that bookselling mobilizes these works and their intentions, creating, in its own way, strength in numbers. We encourage you to review the catalogue, and to learn and take courage from it, just as we have.
View the full e-catalogue here.
