Since October 2022, a small and substantial collection of zines has found a niche at the Grande Bibliothèque. Zines? This is the nickname of the fanzines, these small-circulation self-published craft publications, often political, demanding, immodest, which fuel the creativity of cooking and the energy of bands garage. They form the vague paper of what the Anglos call the Do-It-Yourself.
“When we moved the comic book collection, explains librarian Marie-Ève Plamondon, we didn’t just want to move the furniture. We wondered what we wanted to do again, too, in this space. »
“The collection of zines was chosen,” she continues, “because it was the most avant-garde idea for us, and which comes with the Grande Bibliothèque’s desire to be more present on the artistic scene and cultural. »
Mme Plamondon and her colleague Katia Huber, both responsible for zines at the Bibliothèque et Archives Nationales du Québec (BAnQ), have sparkling eyes when they talk to the Duty the need to go out, to go to the Expozine or the Montreal comic book festival, to meet artists and craftsmen, to mount this still unusual collection in the library.
They gleaned some 360 zines — some already slipped into the regular collection, most are new. “We haven’t yet dared to go to the Anarchist Book Fair, we say to ourselves that this may not be the place for an institution like ours, but maybe it should…”
One of the specificities of the zine is that each work is thought out in its own form, very closely linked to the content. Illustrations are often present. Creativity, resourcefulness, originality and clumsiness are welcome.
Short and varied
If the short is in order — a logic of immediacy carries the zine, including a certain fragility (“the oldest we have are ten years old, that’s old for a zine…”). The formats, large, small, triangular, pop-up, origami, are very varied. A challenge for a library.
We leaf through the fanzine of fans, untitled, all illustrated, necessarily refreshing. We open the pink triangle ofSoft insults, adorned with a flying fish all in black ink, with poems and illustrations by Greta Ziegenhagen. Also Brutala magnificent booklet of serigraphs by 37 artists.
Here we find many autobiographical zines, sometimes called “perzines” in English, which highlight the intimacy of their authors.
Or Faunaa fake double agent zine from a real publishing house, produced by Alto’s lab, with gold-on-black illustrations by Julie Rocheleau on words by Christiane Vadnais.
The Grande Bibliothèque has developed a plastic pocket, in which each zine is slipped, in order to protect it but also to allow it to be borrowed (barcode scanning and safe transport, three zines per user at a time) .
While all the printed matter of the Grande Bibliothèque is bound, the cover laminated to increase its lifespan, the zines escape this treatment, so that one can touch the paper, feel the textures, fold, unfold, fold.
“One of the ideas was for users to enter into a direct relationship with the zine. We also wanted them to be in touch with each other through this collection, and also with the zine community,” explains Ms.me Huber. The zine is also the subject of activities at the Grande Bibliothèque: “Come and fold zines! and others soon planned for secondary schools.
The collection is in running. The two librarians observe its movements and will see how to develop it. “150 numbers will be added in the next year, they specify. For conservation, to date, the cover plays its role well, but yes, there will be a higher turnover in zines than in books — the limited editions mean that they are not replaceable, and the fragility of the zine is part of of his mind. »
Biographies and stories
Are there any particularities to Quebec zines? The librarians recoil slightly from the question, and refer us to the researcher Izabeau Legendre. For the author of The Montreal zine scene (Aura, 2022), “there is clearly something distinctive about Quebec”.
In general, believes the academic, the zines in Quebec are closer to what is done in the United States in their form or in their content than those found in France.
“There are a lot of autobiographical zines here, which are sometimes called “perzines” in English, which highlight the intimacy of their authors. Mr. Legendre even speaks of “pooling intimacies” to emphasize the link between intimacy and community in local zines.
“In Quebec, there is also the particularity of the cultural field itself,” continues the specialist. “Quebec’s cultural milieu is very small, obsessed with its own survival. From a zine perspective, that means the distance between the margin and the center isn’t that great; the gap between the conventional publishing world and the zine world, which is very wide in France or the United States, is easily bridged here. »
And authors from here, mainly cartoonists, continue to navigate between professional publishing and the zine, as the librarians mention. In the collection of the Grande Bibliothèque, there are zines by Cathon, Zviane, Iris, Julie Doucet or Jimmy Beaulieu, specifies Ms.me Plamondon.
“Zines have been part of Quebec comics for as long as it has existed, or almost,” confirms Mr. Legendre in turn. The comic book industry, he believes, is particularly open to self-publishing and zines. “Reciprocally, it’s quite possible to make a name for yourself in comics by making zines. »
And this would be more true in Quebec than elsewhere, “precisely because the environment is smaller”.
Bilingualism is another important element of the Quebec zine, especially in Montreal. “The zine is one of the few truly bilingual cultural spaces in Canada. On the side of the more institutional culture, in the book chain for example, everything is separated by the linguistic criterion. Distribution networks are separate, Franco or Anglo, public funding takes language into account, etc. »
“In the zines, there is none of that. It circulates between the Anglophone and Francophone communities. A good example: the introduction of “queer” into French-speaking circles. We saw it arrive in zines in Montreal a good decade before seeing it enter conventional publishing.