Pop-Up Library For Indie Zines Hits The Road

Running a magazine shop with independent publications may be profitable in New York or London, but in the rest of the world the market for alternative zines is quite small. Zines of the Zone overcomes this problem by popping up at places where temporary audiences for alternative zines can be found.

Founded in Nantes, France, Zines of the Zone is a mobile library dedicated to independently published, mostly photography-related, books and magazines. As Europe consists of many towns with small cultural interested audience, the library pops up at events and festivals related to the topic. This enables the people behind Zines of the Zone to find an audience for the niche zines they showcase. The pop-up library currently travels through Europe by van to show its collection. Along with the journey Zines of the Zone organizes pop-up events, collect new books and zines, and meet local publishers in order to create a cross-European network focused on alternative publishing.

Zines of the Zone

Zines of the Zone

Zines of the Zone

On their blog the initiators write about their road trip, that has already brought them to the subcultural scenes in cities such as Madrid, Copenhagen, Sarajevo, and Hamburg. Last weekend, Zines of the Zone popped up at the Culturele Zondagen Festival in Utrecht, Netherlands.