Two concurrent exhibitions in central London this summer—'Art & the Book' at the Warburg Institute and 'Spineless Wonders: The Power of Print Unbound' at Senate House Library—celebrate the contemporary and historical impact of print and small-press publishing. The shows feature a spectrum of materials from socialist pamphlets and activist flyers to artists' books and ephemera, drawn from special collections to highlight the deep history of paper and print as a medium for autonomous production. The Warburg exhibition, curated by Matthew Harle with guest curators Arnaud Desjardin and Hlib Velyhorskyi, centers on artists' books and includes residencies, talks, and an art bookfair, all open to the public.
These exhibitions matter because they place the current revival of zine-making and independent publishing—especially popular among millennials and Gen Z—within a radical multigenerational continuum, showing how print has long served as a tool for collective expression and resistance. They also underscore the vital role of libraries as gathering points for preserving fragile documents that might otherwise be lost to collective memory, while the Warburg Institute's newly opened extension demonstrates a commitment to convivial, accessible public engagement with special collections.