Communicating About The Moment

During the 1980s, as not only Artists’ Books were gaining popularity and recognition as an art form, zines were also being circulated to communicate about events, personal experiences, observed trends, and other items that needed to be dealt with in a reasonably timely manner. They took less time to compose, publish, and distribute than books and were therefore considered more contemporaneous.

The Franklin Furnace had its own zine, The Flue, which published 16 issues between 1980 and 1989. These performed many functions for the organization, including, but not limited to: institutional newsletter, member communications, exhibition catalogues and checklists, and articles and research about the Artists’ Book field. We felt that it would be useful to exhibit some of the issues of this zine to capture the context of this time period. During the second decade of its existence, Franklin Furnace Archive, Inc., had grown significantly and was serving an ever-widening group of artists and creators.

Mark S. Waskow, Curator
President, Northern New England Museum of
Contemporary Art (NNEMoCA)