The mid-1960s witnessed a boom in underground and self-published works. Hectographs, mimeographs, and offset printing not only allowed for the production of small, low-cost print runs but also promoted a unique aesthetic; using wild mock-ups, messianic amateurs combined typescript blocks of text, handwriting, scribbled drawings, assemblages of collaged visuals, porn photos, snapshots, and comic strips. The typography freed itself, in parallel with a liberalization of linguistic and visual forms of expression in the name of a new sensibility. This book (which appeared in conjunction with an exhibition at the Weserburg in Bremen in 2017) is the first to present the underground and self-published works that came out of West Germany in such depth, while also showing the international context in which they emerged—not as an anecdotal history but as an attempt to tap into the aesthetic cosmos of a Do-It-Yourself rebellion, one that also challenges us to take a new look at the current boom in independent publishing, the popularity of Risography, contemporary zine-making, and other related topics.

Edited by Jan-Frederik Bandel, Annette Gilbert, and Tania Prill

Designed by Prill Vieceli Cremers, in collaboration with students of the HfK Bremen

Published by Spector Books, 2017
First edition

Softcover, 368 pages, silver coil binding, full color and b&w, 13.25 × 9.75 inches

ISBN: 978-3-95905-104-0