The Grey Guide was disseminated as a series of bi-weekly electronic newsletters from March 1 to June 21, 2017. These newsletters, or briefs, will then be printed as a series of essays bound as a paperback book in a limited run distributed for free to the ARCA membership and sold to wider publics at future gatherings, such as at several programmed launch events. A digital version of the publication will be made freely available on the ARCA website, while a PDF will be archived in the e-artexte repository (following a year-long embargo). With concerted effort and a little luck, these digital copies will be linked to by our readers across multiple platforms, will be commented upon (positively or negatively) and will be shared internationally through social media. The guide, and its immediate and long-term circulation, was made possible through ARCA’s multi-year operating grant from the Canada Council for the Arts and the financial support of Canadian Heritage for translation and l’Association des groupes en arts visuels francophones, as part of their L’art visuel s’écrit project.
We (Anne and Felicity) hope that the Grey Guide will provoke debate around structural issues in artist-run publishing that are often difficult to articulate due to their complexity. Although dense at times, the tone of this guide assumes that its readers are already committed actors within digital-culture debates, as the issues inform their daily activities. ARCA and RCAAQ, our institutional sponsors, hope the Grey Guide will set the stage for future advocacy, leading, for instance, to a dedicated fee schedule for visual and media arts writing. The difficulty in accessing grants for translation of creative non-fiction through Heritage Canada is also of concern, particularly as the paradigm of official bilingualism appears to be giving way to an approach that uses multiple registers of languages, including Indigenous languages, diasporic dialects, Braille and Sign Languages, to speak to diversified publics on their own terms. Furthermore, ARCA and RCAAQ hope that the Grey Guide will fan the flames of artists’ already-existing desires to establish international distribution and co-publishing relationships. Global conferences on art-book publishing are highly anticipated as future book fairs, with the view to continuing the work that already takes place in artist-run culture: collapsing disciplinary boundaries, destabilizing institutional structures, shifting social strata and transcending international borders—in short, promoting the ideals of open access, transparency and participatory modes of engagement that define democracy in a digital era.
Some important topics that we wish we had been able to address in more detail in this guide include: the role that crowdfunding has played in the success of specific kinds of print and digital publishing projects; the expanded forms that publishing and publicity can take in cross-platform digital media, as well as in print; which attributes of artist-run publishers are more likely to attract international co-publishing opportunities than others; and the role of private galleries and collectors in fundraising or fostering co-publishing relationships.
Alongside the advocacy presently taking place at the level of cultural and economic policy, artists and artist-run publishers continue to grapple with day-to-day decisions regarding how the free circulation of some aspect of their work will enable a commercial transaction elsewhere. In the post-Internet moment, the presentation of objects in gallery settings is deliberately conceived in terms of how the images of objects and installations circulate across digital platforms. A similar post-digital logic applies to artist-run publishing, as print-based forms are released in parallel digital formats. Information services such as e-flux and Akimbo shift the responsibility for copyright clearance of images to their clients, as they generate revenue from their ability to circulate publicity throughout their proprietary networks. On the other hand, online archives like UbuWeb stand as examples of artist-run platforms where access to cultural objects is prioritized over remuneration for the artists. The provocative question in this moment continues to be: how do we understand the economies of the art world, when notions of economic sustainability have been removed from the equation? ∞
The Grey Guide to Artist-Run Publishing and Circulation is produced by Artist-Run Centres and Collectives Conference(ARCA) in collaboration with le Regroupement des centres d’artistes autogérés du Québec (RCAAQ). Composed of a series of seven briefs written and developed by artist, critic, cultural worker and art librarian Felicity Tayler, this publication will first be launched through a bi-weekly e-campaign, from March 1 to June 21, 2017. The briefs and reference material will then be available for consultation on ARCA’s website, under the “Grey Guide” menu. A small run print version will be distributed for free to members attending the plenary assembly at the Flotilla National Conference on September 24, 2017, in Charlottetown.
Following a series of meetings of an ad hoc committee of independent publishers from Quebec and Canada, this guide seeks to trigger high-level debate about the role of publishing in artist-run culture. Combining theory with practice, the Grey Guide also offers practical guidance in this complex field, so that a new generation of artists and cultural workers who wish to professionalize may do so, while others may opt to remain resolutely DIY if they so please. Either way, somewhere on the continuum between adopting an entrepreneurial strategy and advocating for sustained public funding, this guide offers insight into the advantages and disadvantages inherent to a diversity of approaches.
ARCA wishes to thank all meeting participants, the staff at Artexte, and Michael Maranda for their astute feedback, as well as ARCA’s members for their confidence and ongoing support. This publication has also benefitted from the support of l’Association des groupes en arts visuels francophones (AGAVF), the RCAAQ via its program for promotion of publications as well as support for translation from Canadian Heritage.
