Publishing Across Diaspora 

Equitable Small Scale Distribution

Project Timeline: April 2024-August 2024

Lead Researcher: Bianca Weeko Martin

Research Team:^[a] Zoë Sarkar (assistant researcher), Miguel Soriano (research consultant), Andre Soriano (research consultant), Averill Dimabuyu (research consultant/designer), John Delante (research consultant/photographer), Revill Villanueva (research consultant/artist), Krissie Cruz (editor/writer)

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.

0.0 Blurb

The project explores alternative models for publishing and distributing books and print media by emerging artists, through the lens of diaspora.

It aims to research and leverage the potential of culturally specific, transnational networks, anchoring the research through community feedback events in Manila and Toronto. The Filipino artistic community and its diaspora in Canada serve as a case study for media forms that could provide lessons translating to potential publishing strategies for emerging and newcomer artists in Canada.

Work for this project involves interviewing alternative publishers, published artists, and newcomer artists and using community feedback events to identify barriers and opportunities. The findings have been compiled within the enclosed Document and are intended to be shared with emerging artists broadly interested in publishing.

Publishing

“Making content available to the public for sale or for free”—from the dream world to the real world

Across

The exchange occurs reciprocally—back and forth—creating movement

Diaspora

Whose public?

1.0 Introduction

Emerging artists and writers increase their legitimacy and visibility by publishing and sharing work while also gaining the opportunity to cultivate communities built on support, referral, and constructive criticism. Marginalized voices such as immigrant and newcomer artists struggle to find representation within the traditional publishing system, a system that favours academics with dedicated research funding streams and other established voices. At the same time, self-publishing requires a focused toolkit for effective promotion, curation, and circulation in a now-saturated landscape.

Our work interviewing artists and publishers confirmed that many people—when given the structure, time, and space to be listened to—have a dream book idea. Despite not knowing where to go to be published or what benefits publishing can bring, most of the artists interviewed for this research project had a clear picture of the stories and media forms that would go into their dream book. Perhaps it is because of advances in digital printing that publishing one’s book feels more accessible: a tangible aspiration. But beyond its physical specifications, a book could simply be an excuse for reaching out to someone or initiating a project. Books can grant authors a certain level of autonomy, which is not always seen in collaborative artistic works.

In this research project, we use the term “alternative publishing” to refer to a sizeable emergent spectrum between DIY/self-publishing and massive global publishers. Digital avenues of dissemination, such as ebooks and open-access PDFs, are considered but do not explicitly form the focus of this research. Another decision we made while gathering case studies was to focus on monographs on singular artists as opposed to magazines or periodicals, which feature multiple artists side by side.

Form 

Changing reading habits and media prioritizing shorter-form content have prompted the need for new perspectives that can help publishers engage readers more effectively. Individual artists and their work often have a web presence, making a deeper, independent exploration of artists available to readers beyond the printed book. A book may act as a hyperlink, a bibliography of sorts, more of an interconnected art object than a comprehensive encyclopedia. What would a media form look like if it were accessible to newcomer artists and adapted to current technologies?

Andre Soriano, Printing Research Consultant:

“You guys are lucky in your generation because printing is not dead… Everything is being converted to web content, but at the end of the day, people are still actually looking for something to hold onto and keep. Printing is still there. It’s just much better now, and it’s becoming cheaper as well because it's commoditized.”

Costs

Despite expectations to publish and circulate work, the publishing sector presents barriers to affordability and accessibility. Taking a step back and considering the context of current printing technologies can help put things into perspective. According to our printing research consultant, Andre Soriano, digital printing has actually made publishing more affordable for artists. It offers faster turnaround times and better accommodates small print runs than traditional analog printing, which relies on printing presses and incurs higher costs per print.

Printing is more accessible now, and “anybody can publish their own books,”—but this makes it even more crucial for the growing number of self-publishing artists to familiarize themselves with the printing process, repercussions and sizes of print runs, and material considerations that can ultimately save costs and impact the final product of publishing.

Distribution

Lastly, what if the scale of publishing and distribution was focused on a cultural group and its diaspora? The possibility of a culturally specific network for publishing, support, and sharing of work and resources was one of the original inspirations for this research.

(But what even is diaspora?—This is considered within Section 4.0 Diaspora and Cultural Identity.)

1.2 The Filipino Diaspora

As members of the Filipino diaspora, we grow up on balikbayan boxes mailed across fragmented families; we exchange media in the form of prayers, memes, and chismis; we swap updates across seas that mirror our ‘good mornings’ into nights.

In 2022, the Philippines was ranked fifth as the largest source of migrants to Canada (CIC 2022). Immigrants with transnational support networks offer new potential for collaboration, resource sharing, and idea exchange. While the “homeland” can offer thematic and indirect inspiration for artwork and publishing, it can also offer concrete examples of publishing activities that respond to the unique political and social conditions of the Philippines.

With this in mind, we engaged Research and Cultural Consultant through the Manila and La Union-based publisher, Kwago, seeking to bridge the dissonance between the Filipino diaspora and Filipinos in the Philippines. We observed that art initiatives in Canada sometimes center on immigrant and minority groups without being able to validate ideas in the “homeland,” the country, and the community of origin. As part of this research project, Kwago led a webinar with Filipino-Canadian cultural workers in July 2024 and hosted Lead Researcher Bianca Weeko Martin at their project space Anges, detailed in Section 2.2 of this document. Kwago has executed a series of projects and activities that are closely aligned with our preconceived notion of what constitutes “alternative publishing,” such as multimedia formats, printing-on-demand options and active, site-responsive community engagement.

Below is a (slightly meandering) summary of terms we consider unique to Filipino culture and that have guided our expanded approach to publishing research.

Kapwa: A term that goes beyond the individual self, it emphasizes the collective aspect of being human and influences various social interactions and support systems.

Social media, oral histories, and knowledge sharing: Can the Philippines’ long-standing tradition of oral history be considered alongside its obsession with social media? Filipino Professors, such as the public historian Ambeth Ocampo, engages a substantial following through social media websites like Facebook and has even participated in critical online debates: “Don’t confuse history and chismis.”^[b] And Substack, an online content platform for writers and journalists, writes: “Traditional media provides the fodder for social media’s main draw, while social media sends traffic to traditional media.”

Translocality and the Filipino diaspora: Translocality refers to the interconnectedness and interdependence of communities across different geographical locations. The Filipino diaspora in Canada and Filipinos in the Philippines collaborate increasingly more regularly, as Filipinos become more visible in creative fields and academic institutions and connect more easily through social networks and on a referral basis. Some recent illustrative transnational projects include:

• Architectural Guide Manila
• Faith and Fortune: Art Across the Global Spanish Empire
• Kamias Triennial
• Leeroy New’s Balete Bulate Bituka at the Bentway, sponsored by Kapisanan Philippine Centre for Arts and Culture

Immigrant support: Immigrant-specific support exists in Canada, such as the Toronto Arts Council’s Newcomer and Refugee Artist Mentorship grant. However, these focus on the production of work by newcomer artists rather than developing a framework for sharing it. Living Hyphen is one example of a publication that explores “the experiences of hyphenated Canadians,” revealing “the rich inner lives of Canada’s diverse [and underrepresented] communities.”

1.3 Publishing

What is publishing?

“The activity of making information, literature, music, software, and other content available to the public for sale or for free.” (Cambridge English Dictionary)

What if we began by reconsidering the role and function of printed memory?

Neferti X.M. Tadiar:

“Books are not just objects but something more akin to what has become ubiquitous in our world today: a kind of media. That is to say, a book is a medium for the sharing and transmission of thought and experience… a book is not a one-way broadcasting device, for it demands our participation to make those thoughts and experiences come alive.”

David Toop:

“For some traditional West African societies printed memory in the form of records or books is considered unnatural, even abhorrent. The positive and negative powers of living things, including thoughts, memories, and historical events, are understood as embodied in words but, transferred in written form, are seen as trapped in an undesirable state of rigidity and permanence.”

Sebastian Clark, isolarii:

“[Being a publisher] is ideally a way to be autonomous in the world, to create your own narrative through time and create a vehicle to sustain your creative endeavors. For a publisher, that is ideally what publishing is, but it is hard to make those systems work.”

Andre Soriano, IT and Printing Business Development:

“You’re the next generation, and to be honest, I encourage you guys to keep on publishing. Whatever you have in mind. Because that’s the only way we can continue on, really. To showcase what we want to tell the world.”

Gervais Nash:

        “For me, the most impactful part about art is the gathering."

What makes publishing beautiful is that it holds the potential to engage authors from multiple sectors, from art and design to literature and the sciences, who all publish work.

ISBN Process

ISBN stands for International Standard Book Number. It is a globally recognized, unique numeric identifier for books and media, allowing them to be sold, distributed, and cataloged accurately by libraries, bookstores, and online retailers.

• In Canada, eligible Canadian publishers* must create an account online with the Library and Archives of Canada/Canadian ISBN Online Service System to request an ISBN

• *For self-published works, the publisher could be the author’s legal name or a registered sole proprietorship. Note that this name, as well as home address, will go into a publicly accessible database of publishers in Canada

• ISBN registration is free for Canadian residents—whereas an ISBN license in the US costs $125 USD
• To request an ISBN, applicants need:

• The book title
• The book format (print or electronic)
• The expected date of publication
• Author’s contact details

• Once a publisher has obtained an ISBN for a book, the publisher must send physical copies to legal deposit to add the books to the nation’s published heritage collection.

Patrick Cruz:

“I don’t think making it more legitimate makes it more satisfying. I think they wanted to do [the ISBN] because they wanted public institutions to carry them. Without an ISBN, they can’t archive it, so it’s more for archival purposes, which is counter to what I wanted. I wanted an ephemeral project that disintegrates, but they want to preserve it.”

Printing

As we learned through our interview with printing research consultant Andre Soriano, there is often a disconnect between an artist’s concept for a book and the technical printing procedure at the end of the publishing process. This knowledge gap can result in unnecessary costs and unfulfilled expectations. When considering publishing, emerging artists should consider these factors:

1. The sizing of paper (particularly, standard paper sizes)
2. The size of the print run (i.e., 100-500 is a small run and will cost more per unit than a larger run since the initial preparation is the same for much larger quantities)
3. The importance of colour to a book’s marketability, and variances between proofs and different desktops
4. The nature of digital versus analog printing (particularly the difference in setup costs)

Andre Soriano:

“[With digital], you can print one book, and then from there you can start to test your market. Do I like the design? Share it to your friends and then from there you can make changes without spending so much money.”

Facility space showing offset printers, plate, and pallets with stacks of paper. Tower Litho from tour with Andre Soriano on August 12, 2024

2.0 Publisher Case Studies

• 2.1 isolarii [Our Cultural Partner in the UK]

                                          Source

• Point of contact: Sebastian Clark
• Description: “Islands from which to view the world anew”: isolarii adopts the name as a revival of the literary genre, the Renaissance of “island books.” Together, they are an archipelago of today’s avant-garde movements and figures.
• Distribution Model: 

• Subscription via isolarii.com
• $15 US/per release by subscription only, free international shipping
• New release approximately every two months

• Physical specs: Printed books the size of a phone display.

• “This ties to the practical reason why isolarii are so small. This is so that we can distribute them, literally ship them all over the world with immediacy, in a way that maybe even Penguin Random House can’t. So it’s the format itself that gives way to the international community that we’re building.”^[c]

• Previous output: Salmon: A Red Herring by Cooking Sections, F Letter: New Russian Feminist Poetry by Galina Ryumbu et al., Purple Perilla by Can Xue, Street Cop by Robert Coover and Art Spiegelman, Modern Animal by Yevgenia Belorusets, The Archipelago Conversations by Edouard Glissant and Hans Ulrich Obrist, Ever Gaia by James Lovelock and Hans Ulrich Obrist, and A Book of My Own by Scholastique Mukasonga
• Interview April 5, 2024

• Our interview with Sebastian centered on the emerging concept of alternative publishing and the communities, or public, it can foster. According to Sebastian, “[Publishing] is about the creation of new formats that enable the circulation of ideas in novel ways. By those means, you also produce a public. I strongly believe that to publish, in a sense, is to produce a public.”
• “In constructing this wider metaphor of islands and archipelagos, I really do aim for us to build an actually tangible political, international community, in accord with such thought. With a series, you can create space for another kind of storytelling between the books."
• We chose to focus our conversation on the publishing of artist monographs rather than magazines. In this framework, we discussed how publishing and the project of book-making can be treated as a sort of “hack” to interface with artists and figures of interest. We also discussed how current publishing research should focus on developing new media, not simply answering the question of whether “print is dead.”
• We discussed the potential of editing as “care” and gift-giving as something the scale of isolarii books enables. Sebastian described his books as "kind of the seeds of what we believe in.”
• Finally (and tangentially), we spoke about the role and function of contemporary studios in a climate where tasks are often outsourced or assigned from project to project. We contemplated isolarii being more of an agile “platform” for designers and collaborators rather than a publishing house as we know it.

 Source: https://isipkwago.org/ (Kwago)

Anges Bed and Books by Kwago. Source: Bianca Weeko Martin

• 2.2 Kwago [Our Cultural Partner in the Philippines]

“Kwago collaborates with diverse communities to build caring spaces for reading, writing and publishing.”

• Point of contact: Czyka Tumaliuan
• Description: Kwago, named for the Eagle-Owl of the Philippines, is an independent bookstore and non-profit publishing laboratory. Czyka Tumaliuan founded Kwago in 2017 as a creative platform that develops publications, programs, and projects to nurture critical consciousness and provide creative nourishment across various Filipino communities. It consists of a collective of artists, writers, teachers, and engineers.

• “We work under the principles of Free Open-Source Software (FOSS), but also support the dignity of creative labor. We believe in the power of paper, ink, and code as tools for the practice of freedom.”

• Projects:

• Anges is a small creative refuge recently launched by Czyka and Kwago on the shores of Ili Norte, La Union, Philippines. Anges was designed “for play and healing.”
• A Curated Shelf within Anges hosts a community-curated selection of books co-developed with Kwago: on labor, slow living movement, mindfulness, spirituality, mental health, healing, and our right to rest and play. Exhibitions twice a year responding to the shelf will be curated. All the furniture and items inside the homestay are handcrafted by and/or co-created with artisans and artists in La Union. In an attempt to promote local arts and crafts to a wider public, all will be sold online unless otherwise indicated.

• “The shelf invites you to reflect on your own relationship with rest and consider how they can incorporate rest as a form of resistance in their own lives. By collectively embracing rest as a tool for liberation, we can begin to dismantle oppressive systems and pave the way for a more just and equitable world.”
• Current Titles on the Shelf
• Anges Curatorial Note

May 19 Morning Pages reading event on the rooftop of Anges

• Cinema Rehiyon is a film festival that is run under the National Commission for Culture and the Arts of The Philippines (NCCA). The festival distributes films from filmmakers across the regions, such as Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. Cinema Rehiyon provides mainstream filmmaking, independent cinema, film education, film outreach, film restoration and archiving, film journalism, and film distribution.

• A place for gathering, eating and watching together
• Kwago Instagram: "PLEASE DON'T ENJOY THE FILMS"

Cinema Rehiyon festival director @angely.chi disturbs us from our comfort zones and encourages us to move away from mere entertainment to allow the selection of shorts yesterday to expand our awareness of other people's struggles which we don't normally have access to.

• Distribution Model: Kwago centers their beliefs and values in open knowledge and open sharing. They aspire towards democratic databases of knowledge and resources accessible to all classes of Filipinos, amplified by community outreach programs

• Community curated shelf
• Libraries for women, men and youth

• Prison Libraries
• Collaborative Archiving and Digital Libraries: free, alphabetized digital library on Google Drive called Bantayog digital library, also known as Bantayog ng mga Bayani

• Workshops and Distros (Distribution)

• Cainta Community Pantry first began as a place to share food and clothes, and developed into a “luggage library” for sharing books and objects
• Online and in-person: During the pandemic, online workshops such as Low Resolution and Bedspace were not just important for public health and safety, but also to keep communities connected during a time of isolation

• E-publications for accessibility

• Kwago Books: With any purchase of a physical book from Kwago on payhip, a .pdf file is automatically given to the buyer after purchasing. Paypal or Debit/Credit card may be used upon purchase. Digital copies are especially great for anyone living outside of the Philippines because they don’t have to pay for shipping costs. Books range between $3-$10.
• Free Voter’s Education Material 

• Printing for community safety

• Zines made for emergency contacts in case of poor internet
• Project Protect Our Journalists

• Printing-on-demand remotely

• Kwago is actively engaged in exploring printing-on-demand options for bookstores and distributors overseas, primarily to combat high shipping costs and . Our team at Publishing Across Diaspora is interested in exploring how we might receive and print these publications on-site in Toronto, contributing to a larger program of publishing and printing “across diaspora.” Interestingly, the original grant application for this project listed the following as possible innovative solutions within publishing/printing: “Shared printing services, print-on-demand services to eliminate the startup costs of bulk printing, collaborative exhibitions, resource sharing”

• Previous output: Bagong Makata by Kwago, Spirits of the Archipelago by Karl Gaverza, Witness by Adam Zhou, Pagsulat ng Liwanag by Kwago, Baka/ by Kwago, Molotov by Kwago, Bedspacer by Kwago, Phantom Limbs by Kwago, Sitwasyon by Kwago, and Ortigas Excursions by Marren, Kristian and Jeba
• Community Feedback Session May 19, 2024

• Prior to planning an online exchange between Kwago and Filipino-Canadian cultural workers, Lead Researcher Bianca Weeko Martin met with Czyka Tumaliuan in La Union, Philippines, and co-facilitated an event on-site at Anges called Morning Pages. At sunrise, Bianca read a passage from Ready to Burst by Frankétienne, linking a Haitian writer’s archipelagic experience and struggles within a Filipino context. After the literary activation, the copy of the book was donated to Anges’ Curated Shelf.

• Kwago Webinar July 15, 2024

• As an opportunity to gather a closed group of Filipino, Filipino-Canadian and Pan-Asian identifying artists, a webinar was conducted over Zoom to connect these artists with cultural partner Czyka Tumaliuan. Artists joined in from the Philippines, Toronto, Montréal, Chicago and Los Angeles. Czyka shared her philosophy and projects run under Kwago. The webinar inspired collaborations between Czyka and some of the artists on existing projects to help educate the youth in the Philippines, as well as assist on any upcoming projects.

• 2.3 Slow Editions

Source: Slow Editions

• Point of contact: Eunice Luk
• Description: Eunice Luk publishes artist books and multiples under the imprint Slow Editions. Since 2014, Slow Editions has collaborated with artists, poets, writers, and musicians to capture their work in various physical formats, such as books, prints, clothing, and ceramics, expanding the traditional definition of publishing. Slow Editions is rooted in the philosophy of producing slowly and in limited quantities, and the belief that books do not have to be mass produced. Rather, they can be treated akin to art objects and expressions of friendship or collaborations, and they do not have to represent timelines that lead to burnout.

• “We can make it work somehow by our own means. It doesn't have to look a certain way, we can make it however we want to. We can learn and define it the way that we want to. I think it was very valuable to have time to figure out self-distribution, to find ways to disseminate work. I think if I didn't get into independent publishing, I might be waiting for something to happen, instead of going out there and finding opportunities I could fit in instead.”

• Distribution Model: Catalogue items are available in limited editions of between 20-300 and are available for order (via online webshop, powered by Paypal) until they are out of print. Slow Editions maintains a physical presence at in-person performances, events, and especially international Art Book Fairs, across Tokyo, LA, Toronto, Vancouver, and New York. However, after the pandemic, Eunice has become more selective with book fair engagements and travel opportunities, “staying true to what [she] wants to make instead of having the pressure to release something new at every book fair.”

• “All my projects take so much time to make because they are all handbound or have some handmade process in it. It made sense to call it Slow Editions to have less pressure to be quick and less expectations for editions to be released all the time. I want to be able to manage my own expectations.”

• Physical specs: The size of the publications varies widely depending on the artist. Some are flipbooks suitable for a coffee table, 135mm x 192mm, 60pp size. Others are the size of a palm, 62mm x 45mm x 16mm, 20pp. Slow Editions’ ceramics, such as stemware from 7cm L x 6.5cm W x 9.5cm H, are often small-scale.
• Previous output: Bodies of Water by Eunice Luk, My Diary by Arisa Odawara, Flowering tree, Distant moon by Masahiro Takahashi, Several Observations by Vanessa Maltese, Opening Strings by Alicia Nauta and Eunice Luk, 5000 by Masanao Hirayama

• 2.4 Real Review

                                               Credit to @softcover.shop on Instagram

• Description: Real Review is a contemporary culture magazine based in London that lives by the motto "what it means to live today." Real Review’s goal is to remain current in global conversations and make that available to its members.
• Distribution Model:

• Real Review membership:

• £65/annually,
• 2 print issues released yearly
• Access to Discord server
• Subscription to podcast and extra content
• Complete digital archive and rare print editions
• Price-locked renewal

• Note: Real Review does not do any advertising for themselves

• Physical specs: Each issue is a long, skinny magazine in a plastic sleeve with a different Real Review signature face on the cover
• Previous output: Real Review Issue 1 Many As One, Issue 2 Historical Déjà Vu, Issue 3 Global Civil War, Issue 4 What It Means To Love Today, Issue 5 Systemic Doubt, Issue 6 Just In Time, Issue 7 Woke Awakening, Issue 8 Against From Within, Issue 9 End Times, Issue 10 New Renaissance, Issue 11 What To Believe, Issue 12 Absolute Proximity, Issue 13 Mining The Past, Issue 14 Direct Perception and Issue 15 Phantom of Liberty

• 2.5 Boot Boyz Biz

                       Credit to @cocotinn on Instagram                               Credit to @bootboyzbiz on Instagram

• Description: Boot Boyz Biz is a “research and production worker cooperative” promoting access to ideas and activating ecologies of knowledge through projects across multiple physical media

• “We use intertextual strategies and disinterment to produce translated–synthesized works that strive to open unique pathways.”

• Distribution Model: Products sold online through webshop and shipped internationally. Boot Boyz Biz apparel is highly sought after and often sells out overnight. Many items end up on resale through webshops such as Grailed, Depop, and eBay. If books are sold out via the Boot Boyz Biz website, a link to Inventory Press is provided to buy other available copies directly through the Publisher.

• Based on Reddit discussions, there is a certain lore around a deck of cards series being the “mic drop” for Boots Boyz Biz. It was speculated that “52 cards” meant “52 drops,” signaling the end of the Boot Boyz Biz project; however, others in the discussion pointed out that the deck has 54 cards, leading to the conclusion that the project has not yet ended. Such speculations contribute to Boot Boyz Biz’s “hype” factor
• Insight: Even when the project ends, the objects live on, increasing the mystery and hype and adding value rather than discrediting the brand

• Physical specs: Garments are hand-printed in New York and produced in single editions, and T-shirts are 100% cotton. Books are printed as Perfect Bound Softcover. Sizes are 4.75" x 7.75" and 4.25" x 6.75", perfect for bookshelves. There are also objects, many for the home, such as woven jacquard blankets that are 54"in x 68", as well as 11oz ceramic mugs and 10oz glass cups.
• Previous output: Boot Boyz Biz either centers or collaborates with a wide variety of historic and contemporary cultural partners through their merchandise: Saturday Night Live Ain’t No Jive night mix on Black FM station WBMX, Cixous72 collaboration focusing on woman creators, Gundam and artist Jean Dubuffet, BBB Commonplace: From Spectre to Flame for Pidgin publication (out of Princeton University School of Architecture), Oblique Strategies with Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt, MiniFM / Free Radio with Inga Bookshop

• 2.6 Issues Mag Club Quarterly Subscription Box

                                               Credit to @issuesmagshop on Instagram

• Description: Issues describes themselves as a “clubhouse” magazine shop for magazine lovers. They carry hard-to-find, independent magazines from around the world, aiming to keep print alive by “celebrating the people and projects” in the magazines they stock.
• Distribution Model:

• Mag Club Quarterly Subscription Box:

• $100 CAD/Box
• Delivers every 3 months (March, June, September, December)

• Boxsets are also available, ranging from $50-$300 depending on quantity of magazines
• Individual magazines are also available in person and through their online shop

• Physical specs: Varies, but note that the most common sizes for printing magazines are 8.5” x 11” and 5.5” x 8.5”
• Previous output:

• Fall 2023: The Happy Reader, Swill, and The West End Phoenix
• Winter 2023: Seen, The Drift, and Picpus

• 2.7 Ugly Duckling Presse 

              Source: @uglyducklingprs on Instagram

• Description: Ugly Duckling Presse (UDP) is a non-profit publisher for poetry, translation, experimental nonfiction, performance texts, and books by artists based in New York. UDP works to uplift emerging, international, and “forgotten” writers through their publications and handmade products and bring attention to the labour and history of bookmaking.
• Distribution Model: UDP offers a variety of subscriptions depending on preference:

• 2024 Full Presse Subscriptions

• $230 US ($300 international)/annually, or
• $19 US ($25 international)/monthly
• All year’s regular edition titles and periodicals (~20 titles) available at a discount of over 30%
• Books shipped quarterly

• 2024 Supporting Subscription

• $330 US ($400 international)/annually, or
• $28 US ($34 international)/monthly
• All year’s regular edition titles and periodicals (~20 titles) available at a discount of over 30%
• Books shipped quarterly
• Name of supporter credited within print catalog and on website

• 2024 Chapbook Subscription

• $75 US ($100 international)/annually
• All year’s chapbooks (7 chapbooks, 1-2 issues of periodical) are available at a discount of over 30%
• Books shipped in May and November.

• Physical specs: The physical specs of the books vary from publication to publication
• Previous output: GLOSSOLALIA by Marlon Hacla, Feast During the Plague by Alexander Pushkin, The Blind Man by Marcel Duchamp, WORDTOMYDEAD by Sadé Powell, If I Were Born in America by Chia-Lun Chang, Awaiting by Charisse Pearlina Weston, The Naif by Valerie Hsiung

• 2.8 Yolkless Press

Source: SNAP Gallery

• Description: Yolkless Press is a Calgary-based risograph publisher focused on Asian-Canadian arts and culture. They provide cost-accessible printing while using commercial print jobs to offset costs and pay artist fees on creative projects. Yolkless began in the summer of 2020 when Teresa Tam and Areum Kim purchased a risograph machine and transported it from Japan to Calgary.
• Distribution Model: Printing and binding for zines, artists’ books, publications, posters, etc., are done by the artist-run team at Yolkless. The press is focused on risography:

• “While the initial start-up costs are high, Riso duplicators provide low-cost and brightly coloured reproducible prints. There is a good amount of artistry involved in the process, with many colour options and an intricate layering process akin to silkscreening. This is why risograph printing is a part of a longstanding and close-knit subculture of artists that extends across the world.”
• “The team at Yolkless Press has learned a lot already, especially what it means to run a community-centred business. Paying people fairly, offering affordable costs and focusing on sustainability are all part of their mission. They see this as a slight deviation from the artist-run centre and institutional model, which often becomes paralyzed by scarcity funding. After creatively sourcing money to pay artists fairly for their first few projects, Yolkless’s goal is to generate revenue sustainably through the sales of their publications.”^[d]

• Physical specs: Yolkless's main specs for printing jobs are in line with the Riso SF5130 EII U machine, with a max printable size of 8.25″ x 13.5″. They also have a minimum order quantity depending on the number of riso colours/layers involved in the print job, starting from a minimum order quantity of 10 prints for one colour/layer and up to 40 prints for four colours/layers.
• Previous output: Each year, Yolkless releases a calendar among other publications. The calendar design has varied from a tear-away calendar to a Korean business-inspired calendar.

                Yolkless also produces a series called Colonial Imports:

• “Colonial Imports is a risograph publication series that unravels and interweaves food, culture, diaspora, identity, and placemaking. Writers, artists, and food lovers/haters examine the intricacies of the food we eat and how they are extracted, shipped, adapted, and consumed.” 

• 2.9 ANAK Publishing Worker Cooperative 

                                                               Source: @ANAKPublishing on Twitter

• Description: ANAK Publishing is dedicated to producing Filipino-Canadian literature, specifically historical literature and children’s literature, to address the cultural gap in educational resources surrounding Filipinos and the Filipino community. They are also an affiliate of the non-profit organization Aksyon Ng Ating Kabataan (ANAK) Inc.
• Distribution Model: ANAK Publishing follows a members-and-community relationship. Each member plays a valuable role as an equal partner of the enterprise. Members prescribe Community Economic Development (CED) principles, which observe the operational needs of the enterprise and the broader interests of the community it is an active part of.
• Physical specs: Books are printed on either paperback or hardcover; the size of the physical publication varies from book to book
• Previous output: Manok/Chicken by Mailyne K. Briggs, Where is Winnipeg? by Darlyne Bautista, Bitter Melanin, Home is in the Body: 2SLGBTQIA+ FilipinX Femme North of the 49th Parallel edited by jacqueline gallos aquines, Super Important Filipina Thoughts by Alia Ceniza Rasul, Sandok: A Filipino-Canadian Oral History Cookbook by Ma. Monica de Castro and Kezia Malabanan, From Manila to Manitoba Vol.1: Winnipeg’s Filipino Health Professionals by Darlyne Bautista

• 2.10 MICE [Moving Image Culture Etc.] Magazine

                                                       Source: @MICEMag on Twitter and MICE website

• Description: MICE is an online periodical based in Toronto that shares critical writing and artists’ projects around moving image culture, and was largely supported by the Canada Council for the Arts (as well as the Ontario Arts Council and Toronto Arts Council). The magazine aimed to discuss the conditions under which media art is produced. As of 2020, the Magazine has been defunct.
• Distribution Model: They are published twice annually, but all four issues are internationally available. The periodical is free, except for their print objects, which are $25. Supporters had the option to purchase one of their three memberships:

• Option 1: $30 CAD/annually
• Option 2: $60 CAD/annually
• Option 3: $100 CAD/annually             

• Physical specs: Since each issue is digital, distinct “covers” were created by giving each issue its own unique tab colour on the browser: Issue 1 yellow, Issue 2 red, Issue 3 blue and Issue 4, the final issue, grey. Regarding format, all issues, except for Issue 3, collect the issue titles as one large block text. From there, the reader can select a title to read. Issue 3 is unique as it reads like a newspaper column. You can swipe to the left to run through all the pieces. One difference between Issue 4 and Issues 1 and 2 is they chose to go full blackout mode, with the title lighting up in white
• Previous output: Issue 1 Invisible Labour (Gina Badger, Nasrin Himada, Laurie Kang, Jennifer Tamayo), Issue 2 Healing Justice (Syrus Marcus Ware, Shanell Papp, Alize Zorlutuna, Sheena Hoszko), Issue 3 Ghost Intimacies (Fan Wu, Cailyn Petrona Stewart, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Sophia Le-Phat Ho, Ronald Rose-Antoinette), Issue 4 Opacities (Sandra Brewster, Ming Smith, Esery Mondesir, Nehal El-Hadi, Liz Ikiriko, Anique Jordan). Additional chapbooks: Of Birds, Ointments, and Care: How Peter Collins’ Artworks Kept Him in Prison by Sheena Hoszko, How to Burn Paper for the Dead by Annie Wong

• 2.11 Fountainhead Arts

• Description: Fountainhead Arts aims to empower artists to build thriving careers while cultivating and nurturing a community that supports them and their work. Fountainhead is South Florida's preeminent residency and artist studio and organizer of Miami's only county-wide open studios event.

• “Harnessing the power in our diversity, Fountainhead is building a global family of artists and appreciators, one personal connection at a time.”

• Distribution Model: An end-of-year Yearbook, “Survey of Residency Artists,” summarizes all in-residence artists’ work from the preceding 12-month term. The book also contains critical essays by some of their visual art critics and scholars.
• Physical specs: The Yearbook follows a large square format with glossed pages and high-quality ink photos.
• Previous output: 2022 Yearbook Artists: Allan Pichardo, Amy Bravo, Andrey Gûaianã Zignnatto, Angela Davis Johnson, Bony Ramirez, Bridget Mullen, Cathy Hsiao, Demetrius Oliver, Elana Herzog, Eriko Tsogo, Gabrielle Vitollo, Gisela McDaniel, Jarvis Boyland, Jessica Alazraki, Joiri Minaya, Lauren Kelley, Leasho Johnson, Marcela Cantuária, Merav and Halil, Natalie Ball, Nate Lewis, Nereida Patricia, Nestor Siré, Ornella Pocetti, Patricia Ayres, Pavlo Kerestey, Priscilla Aleman, Rachel Stern, Rashayla Marie Brown, Rodney Ewing, Scott Bluedorn, Seung-Min Lee, Shizu Saldamando, Studio Lenca, Vladimir Cybil Charlier

• 2.12 Center for Book Arts

                                                            Source: @centerforbookarts on Instagram

• Description: The Center for Book Arts (CBA) has been around for 45 years. It is one of the oldest non-profits dedicated to exploring artistic practices through book arts and various fields such as education, preservation, exhibitions, studio access, and community building.
• Distribution Model:^[e][f][g] CBA functions as both a distributor of books and artistic practice.

• Book Art Review (BAR) Subscription

• $40/year
• Only two Issues were released

• Workshops

• Online: Suggested $80, but offer a “pay what you can” option to participate
• In-Person: $75-$900
• Training and Certification

• Private Lessons

• $100/hour - non-members
• $90/hour - CBA members

• Studio Rentals

• Basic Monthly Rental: $250/month
• Key holder Monthly Rental: $400/month and requires a deposit
• Hourly Rental:

• $15/hour
• $80/6 hours
• $180/15 hours

• Storage Drawer or Shelf Rental:

• Flat File Storage Drawer: $50/ month
• Storage Shelf: $100/month

• Tours

• Price determined based on the size of the group.

• Support Education

• Donate
• Support Instructors: $20-$500 or other amount
• Become a Member: $60-$1,200/year
• Corporate Membership: $1,500-$20,000/year

• Price determines employee benefits

• Legacy Giving:

• Add CBA as a beneficiary of your retirement assets

• Use a Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD) from your IRA

• Include the Center in your will or trust

• Physical specs: All books are mainly printed with Perfect Bound Softcover and risograph.
• Previous output:^[h][i] CBA has an extensive output of books and resources that are filtered on their Book Shop. They sell their published works and works from other publishers that they consider valuable resources for their customers and members. The types of books they have available in their Shop are: Artists’ Books, Books on Books, Broadsides, Catalogs, Chapbooks, Ephemera, Featured/New Releases, How-To Books, Merchandise, Poetry, Prints, Published by CBA, Studio and Tools and Materials.

• 2.13 Archipelago Books

                                          Source: Lit Hub, who interviewed Archipelago Books

• Description: Archipelago Books is a non-profit that seeks to bridge the gap between American and international authors by publishing translations of classic and contemporary literature
• Distribution Model: Books can be purchased individually, but Archipelago Books offers a membership service:

• $15 US/month, or
• $150/year
• Membership includes one new title per month and 25% off all books

• Physical specs: While the specific physical specs are not written per publication, the majority of the books are seen to be printed as large, square paperbacks
• Previous output: Ready to Burst by Frankétienne, Cockroaches by Scholastique Mukasonga, A Dream in Polar Fog by Yuri Rytkheu, The Birds by Tarjei Vesaas, Love by Hanne Ørstavik, En ny tid by Ida Jessen, Stone Upon Stone by Wiesław Myśliwski, Yalo by Elias Khoury, The Folly by Ivan Vladislavić

• 2.14 CEP Documents

• Description: Documents is the publishing imprint of the Centre for Expanded Poetics at Concordia University. The series editors are Nathan Brown and Michael Nardone. Their aim is to publish work attesting to the multiplicity of practices, techniques, and modes of theoretical intelligence that inform contemporary poetics.
• Distribution Model: All books are sold through their website, except at in-person book launches. Books are designed by LOKI, printed in an edition of 250 on the Centre’s Risograph MZ1090, bound and distributed by collaborators at Anteism. Regardless of page count, ALL books are a flat $20 CAD.
• Physical specs: All books are printed under the same specs:

• 5” x 7.5”
• Interior Printed 1 Colour Risograph (Blue)
• Edition of 250

They also include the same cover design but are differentiated by colour.

• Previous output: CEP Documents has released a total of eight books: Obsidian Situations by Tricia Middleton, Modernist Affect Grid by Alisha Dukelow, Poor Fridge by Mark Francis Johnson, The Book: 101 Definitions by Amaranth Borsuk, Slow Scrape by Tanya Lukin Linklater, Thee Display by Nora Collen Fulton, Looking for Livingstone: An Odyssey of Silence by M. NourbeSe Philip, and Dead Time: Intolerable Images and the Politics of Banality by Devin Wangert

• 2.15 PURVEYR   

• Description: Based in the Philippines, PURVEYR is a culture magazine and media channel founded by Marvin Conanan. It was founded 12 years ago with the aim of publishing Filipino stories, objects, and experiences.

• “As a small and niche media concept, we must find a way that will carve a unique voice and vision that’s authentic to us as a team. Although we are still in the process of truly finding that, I believe that this consistent introspection, inquiry, and improvement are what keeps us alive as a title.”
• “I’ve also recently learned that to be successful and authentic in curating content, the eye should match the lens — either you train the eye to fit it, or find the lens that’s suitable to the eye.”

• https://kanto.com.ph/voices/marvin-conanan-purveyr/ 
• Distribution Model: PURVEYR’s inventory is available through their website and Café City Club in the Philippines. Anyone interested in purchasing magazines and merchandise from them can only do so in the Philippines. Only digital copies of PURVEYR’s magazines are available internationally through their website. Tips from 5% to 15% are also optional upon checkout.

• Magazines

• Physical Copies -  ₱650 ($15.12 CAD) whole price, on sale ₱500 ($11.68 CAD)
• Digital copies - ₱185 ($4.30 CAD)

• Apparel

• ₱400-₱2,000 ($9.30-$46.50 CAD)

• Homeware

• ₱400 ($9.30 CAD) whole price, on sale ₱300 ($6.97 CAD)

• Physical specs: According to //Stack, Magazines are 25.5cm x 18.5cm, and based on the issue, they run 130-180 pages long.
• Previous output: PURVEYR has five released magazines: PURVEYR Magazine 1 - Beginning Issue, PURVEYR Magazine 2 - Passion Issue, PURVEYR Magazine 3 - Collaboration Issue, PURVEYR Magazine 4 - Success Issue, PURVEYR Magazine 5 - Global Issue.

• Beyond traditional publishing, Purveyr has collaborated with fashion and shoe brands such as Adidas and Asics. In the past, they did a piece on Adidas’ SL-72s and recently shared content they shot for the launch of Asics’ GEL_KAYANO 20s.

3.0 Artist Case Studies

• 3.1 Gervais Nash

Interview April 10th - Zoom

• Bio: Gervais is an Afro-Caribbean and Metis-Indigenous Urban Planner, Calisthenics Coach, and former photographer. As an artist, he defines his art as “a catalyst for his community to be represented, celebrated and gathered” and “an event or a piece or a presentation that causes an action. It could be a body of artworks, a gathering of friends, or a group fitness event.”
• “Dream Book Idea”: A document that maps out outdoor gyms and their uses, and provides contextual information on outdoor amenities related to the city and surrounding environment. It would also include technical information on the products, manufacturers, and municipal policies enabling the existence of these outdoor amenities.

• “For me [my dream publication] would be a technical document that would show the actual technical specifications of the parks we are profiling, and siting them geographically. I would also include editorial images of the space romanticizing it a little bit, but also documenting how the space and equipment is actually used.”

• Barriers in Publishing:

• How do I secure funding to publish a book?
• How do I find the right publisher whose values and quality of previous output match my vision?
• How do I distinguish between publishers and know what each one offers individually?

• Why publishing/why print: For Gervais, the point of publishing a book is to provide an educational document promoting outdoor public amenities, present research that could lead to tangible construction and development projects, and express a labour of love for the sport of Calisthenics. Gervais is also interested in sharing local stories of calisthenics park users but felt that this kind of storytelling would be better suited to an audio/visual format, as a publication serves as more of a documentary record.

• “We need to be aligned on the type of stories they publish and the presentation of information they’re familiar with, because ultimately I’m looking to them for their expertise on the physical formatting and perceived legitimacy of the project… I would look for high quality output in terms of the finished product. I would look for alignment on their values and their purpose as an organization beyond their profit requirements.”

• 3.2 Joshua Obra

Interview April 13th - Zoom

• Bio: Joshua is a half-Filipino, half-Black actor, model, and film photographer. His first major acting role was in Shasha Nakhai and Rich Williamson’s film Scarborough, an adaptation of Catherine Hernandez’s book. Scarborough is also where Joshua grew up, a contributing factor to his success in the role and influencing how he approaches life in the city.
• “Dream Book Idea”: A film photography book, memoir/guide to acting, and/or a personal project drawn from the discovery and interpretation of his mother’s old film rolls from her time in the Philippines

• “Becoming a better human in turn would make me a better actor. I feel like the same thing goes for becoming a better photographer would make me a better model. I think that whatever area of work that you decide [to pursue], I feel like there’s always multiple perspectives, multiple ways to look at these things, or multiple roles that are required in order to make a project come to life. There’s no shoot without the photographer. The photographer and model need each other to coexist, so why not learn the otherside of those things. So with acting, why not learn how to direct. Or try to write a film. Or try to be a DP, hold the camera.”

• Barriers in Publishing:

• Where can I go for resources on how to publish?
• How do you find information on the ISBN process?
• How do I get my book into stores and properly market it?
• How do I throw a book launch and book the space for it?

• Why publishing/why print: Joshua approaches the idea of a book with a love for analog film photography and the experience of physically holding a camera or developing a roll of film. He is also interested in the possibility of creating an informational resource based on anecdotes and first-hand experience that would be easily circulated and make the process of getting into acting more transparent.

• “The packaging I feel like for the book, depending on what context or what genre or what niche I decide to go with on the topic of the book, I know I wanted the packaging to be super compelling. I don’t want it to be just a book, you know. I want it to have an interesting packaging to the point where you might wanna just buy two because you don’t want to open it.”
• “More than I ever thought I would, I have so many people coming to me multiple times a week [saying] ‘how do I get [into] acting? I’m new to this XYZ.’ And I’m looking at these messages and I think answering all these questions all the time is super exhausting… I just remember that was me. That was me once upon a time just searching for answers, not knowing what to do, and wishing that I had people to give me some insight in this discipline that I don’t even know if I want to do yet… But it makes me wish I had a 10-30 minute video on a website and just send them that instead of having this big long conversation. But also too, I think, there is importance. There is an important aspect of not knowing how to get into something, and having the discipline and the want to search for those answers because acting is not an easy thing.”

• 3.3 Christine Do

Interview April 17th - Zoom

• Bio: Christine is a Queer Vietnamese photographer and videographer based in Toronto. She has worked with major brands such as Adidas, Savage x Fenty, Nike, and Pacsun. Before she moved into photography and videography, she was a professional dancer, but was urged to transition careers due to the lack of proper female Asian representation in the industry.
• “Dream Book Idea”: A photography book (90-95% visual and 5-10% written stories and poetry). The shorter written section would be a personal challenge for Christine to push past a natural resistance to creative writing.

• “I got into photography because I felt like I couldn't articulate or communicate my entire life. I grew up doing French immersion, [on top of being] in a Vietnamese household. I [didn't] really learn proper English until later in my childhood. So English class was really, really challenging. And I just so specifically remember hating and resisting any type of creative writing or poems. And it's a resistance I've had a lot of in my entire life. I wanna be able to overcome that. This book will also kind of be that motivation for me.”
• “I think there is so much beauty in writing, and you know I grew up reading a lot to escape a lot of things, which helped me develop into this visual artist and storyteller. I feel like {I’m] doing this full circle moment. You know, overcoming.”

• Barriers in Publishing:

• Where would I even start in trying to get published?
• What websites can you refer to for help with publishing?
• What kind of budgets are involved in publishing a book?

• Why publishing/why print: Christine prefers printed matter as she is drawn to the archival, nostalgic, and physical aspects of traditional photo albums.

• “I want to do a physical book because it's just nostalgic. And like I grew up with albums, I'm sure most of us have, and I don't have those memories or those stories in my hands anymore. My young twenties is actually a huge blur, because a lot of it was Instagram, you know. So sometimes when things pop up in my phone album, you know, in the corner when it shows old memories. Stuff I'm like, ‘Oh, Whoa!’ And it sparks up so much.”

• 3.4 Patrick Cruz

Interview April 27th - Zoom

• Bio: Patrick is a multi-disciplinary artist and Assistant Professor in the Department of Arts, Culture, and Media at the University of Toronto Scarborough. He is also the author of the chapbook Birds of Paradise, as well as several zines and pamphlets.
• “Dream Book Idea”: Patrick is open to having writers interpret and translate his artwork and has a high tolerance for other people’s interpretations (or misinterpretations) of his work.

• “I don’t really consider myself a writer. I’m open to translation if anyone is into that. I’m not opposed to being deciphered. I know art can be quite muddied with so many references. Sometimes it’s very convoluted and abstract and it’s still nonlinear in the way we unpack our work.”

• Barriers in Publishing:

• What if my publisher and I have competing interests? (i.e., Patrick originally didn’t want an ISBN for his book, but the publishers wanted it to be accessible to public institutions)
• How exactly does the ISBN process work?
• How can I make time for the production of a book?

• “I feel like all these books are always coming in at an idea level, and never happen because they’re actually so much [more] work than putting on an exhibition.”

• How can I fully know the public I will reach with my book?

• “The public, this notion of the public is really kind of complicated as well because they always ask who is this work for? Why are you making it? How is it made? I think this idea of the public is sometimes imagined or speculated. It’s never truly what it is.”

• Why publishing/why print: Patrick appreciates the additional value or quality that could be afforded to a publication by nature of a limited-quantity run but sees publications living in multiple formats as a possibility. He also sees parallel digital/PDF formats as relevant and useful at this time.

• “I wanted [my book] to live both ways, [exclusive and non-exclusive], but I guess there’s also a nice thing with the kind of ephemerality of it too that it’s temporary. I mean, once I have no more copies, that’s it. I really don’t have any access to it. I don’t know where the file is anymore.”
• “The writers that I cobbled together had different practices. They were mostly friends in the art world. So that was interesting because I was trying to mimic the kind of chaoticness of globalization and familiarity, of how I would curate these contributions, so in a way, it’s kind of an experiment in that sense but also similar to hosting a dinner.”

• 3.5 Miguel Soriano

Interview June 5th - Zoom

• Bio: Miguel is a Masters Student at Concordia University in the Department of Communications and Media Studies. He also works as a part-time research assistant at the University. His Master's thesis involves drawing from frameworks in Filipino-Canadian studies and Diasporic studies to critically theorize the diasporic experience in the context of Canadian policy infrastructures. He is specifically looking at the Canadian Multicultural Act of 1988 and the Canada Council for the Arts Equity policy of 2017. He is also developing an artistic analysis of the digital photo series called “Mending ng Angkan” by Azia Jonelle, a Filipino artist in Toronto, to expand on the diasporic experiences of Filipino immigrants.
• “Dream Book Idea”: Miguel is interested in covering the nightlife of Montréal, specifically the underground organizations that bring together Queer and SWANA communities.

• “I’m kind of involved in the nightlife of Montréal. I see all these different underground organizations that are like these community spaces for Queer people, for SWANA people, a space for SWANA music. And there’s like all these flyers part of all this advertising and stuff. I’d love to create some sort of historical account or guide that references all these different organizations slowly over the years, because it’s all DIY, it starts to get out of the scene and kind of gets forgotten, and these Instagram pages are deleted and organizers move on.”
• “I think this research has definitely helped me get closer to understanding my identity. As someone who is Filipino, but was born in Canada, like a lot of Filipinos are, it has brought up a lot of questions. I mean, it’s interesting to read academic articles about things that we just brush past when we were younger. Like something like the [Balikbayan] box or when we talk about these Filipino parties that we used to have, or like [going to] Catholic Church, and especially like being a part of University. I think it’s nice that we’re able to intellectualize these questions and then find answers to them within these different academic articles. It’s definitely helped me understand it more objectively rather than how I was experiencing it emotionally growing up.”

• Why publishing/why print: Miguel grew up close to the printing industry through the connection of his father, Andre Soriano. Andre started out in the industry when he was in his twenties, printing magazines and tabloids in the Philippines for blue-collar workers and Filipinos working abroad in the Middle East. When Andre moved to Canada, he established a long-term career with Tower Litho Printing in Scarborough, Canada.

• “I reference Suko Magazine before, but their launch was this huge thing, or not huge thing, but they had it at one of the bars that the owner we work for owns. And it was this huge thing where people who are part of the magazine, who didn’t know each other, but were featured in different articles and pages, all came together. It’s like being able to come around [with] so many different people from different backgrounds and different experts. It’s like being able to come around like a single artifact.”

• 3.6 Revill Villanueva

Interview June 15th - Zoom

• Bio: Revill is a Filipino artist who immigrated to Canada from Iloilo (in the Western Visayas region of the Philippines) when he was 13. Most of his family have Cabatuan and General Santos roots, representing both Mindanao and Visayas. His artwork, spanning painting and sculpture, explores speculative futures, immigration, and reimaginings of Filipino narratives throughout space and time.
• “Dream Book Idea”: A graphic novel or comic book showing the unseen reality of people in the provincial regions of the Philippines, with a story “set in the distant future, where the Philippines has become one of the countries affected by climate change with staggering high temperatures and immense drought.” The book would combine themes of futurism with Philippine legends and mythologies. 
• Publishing and the Philippines:

• “Resources here are pretty scarce and limited. It made me realize how we as Canadians in the diaspora are so privileged to have the resources available. I’m not going to lie to you, but like, let’s say books and articles and anything that’s scholarly related is so hard to find here, and they don’t have Amazon here. . . And when I went to a National Bookstore, they literally don’t have any books. I’m like, what the heck, how are you guys gonna educate yourself? The only source of getting their communication and news updates is literally Facebook.”
• “When I went to the National Bookstore, I am kind of saddened that most of their books are Western books. For instance, when we were talking about art, most of the things I saw were like 18th century, 19th century American paintings. I asked the ladies “Hey, do you guys have books on Fernando Amorsolo?” because that’s something I’m really interested in and plus, Fernando Amorsolo, as a painter, chose a lot of scenes from the Province and the farms, so for me, I wanted to delve into his practice. But right now, to this day, I’m still searching for the books on Fernando Amorsolo.”

• 3.7 John Delante

Interview June 15th - Zoom

• Bio: John is a Filipino visual artist working in photography. He grew up in Cebu, Philippines, and immigrated to Toronto, Canada, when he was 17. His work explores themes of home, belonging, and Utopia. Right now he is working on a thesis that centers his relationship with his mother and coming to terms with his identity. John has held roles in research, production, and administration, including research on institutional archives, objects, and ephemera for a Queer archival publication with the Canadian non-profit arts publishing house Magenta Foundation.
• “Dream Book Idea”: A trilogy of publications of photography and personal dialogues, encompassing past work on his relationship with family; present work on friends in Cebu and their relationships changing over time; as well as world-building and speculative fiction.
• Publishing and the Philippines:

• “I really wish there was more funding in the Philippines, but that’s not gonna happen in like 50 years or 100 years. But I think with practicality, it also comes with humour, and that’s how we excel in ourselves and in our daily lives.”
• “There’s less photo books in the Philippines unfortunately because they’re more catered to other mediums.”

• 3.8 Averill Dimabuyu

Interview June 15th - Zoom

• Bio: Averill is a Filipino-Canadian architectural designer born and raised in Toronto, Canada. His parents are from Ilocos Sur and Pampanga in Luzon. He is a collaborator at SHEEEPstudio, an experimental art and architecture studio founded by Reza Nik. Averill’s thesis explores Filipino cultural identity and culminated in research on rice farming in the Philippines and a concrete prototype containing rice husk aggregates. His father was a rice farmer, which formed some of the inspiration behind his thesis.
• “Dream Book Idea”: A publication profiling individual cultural workers in the Philippines and in the diaspora. The work would connect traditions originating from somewhere in the Philippines with the efforts of an individual member of the Filipino diaspora who is “keeping the tradition alive, but… doing it in their own way.”

• Two questions that are important to Averill’s work are how can we preserve culture? and how can architecture play a role in that?
• Averill is also interested in the possibility of more “dynamic exchange” between cultural workers in the Philippines and the diaspora, bridging gaps and enabling the communities to become more entwined.

• Publishing and the Philippines:

• “There are so many obstacles to getting information [in the Philippines]. I need to sign ten different documents to show, like the legal form with my ID, passport, etc., which made no sense, and kind of proved that I was doing it for school.”

4.0 Diaspora and Cultural Identity

Publishing Across Diaspora Celebration at SHEEEP studio in West Toronto on October 13, 2024. Participants brought their laptops and followed along during a guided presentation of this research Google Doc.

In Publishing Across Diaspora, we are closely thinking about diaspora as the dispersal of seeds. What seeds can we take from our experiences of learning about our identity and sharing it back home, and vice versa? ^[j]Just as a book that is dispersed like a seed, our questions and projects engaged in cultural identity could be like the seeds of our “homeland.”

We acknowledge that cross-pollination happening in tandem with dissemination across the diaspora doesn’t necessarily mean all will be answered. Artist Patrick Cruz addressed this well, saying: “[Collaboration in the Filipino diaspora] produces more questions than answers. It really just reveals itself that identity is not fixed.” Eunice Luk of Slow Editions has similarly referred to her identity as fluid, and “constantly changing and evolving around [her] everyday experiences. Being able to observe and adapt has been an important part of how [she moves] through the world in different situations and with different people.” But Patrick also speaks about the tangible value of returning to the homeland and sharing resources. “There’s a lot of privilege that comes with being a migrant... My hope is that they, [Filipino migrants], would go back and share those resources, share the experience. I mean, it’s kind of similar to this project. You’re going back to reconnect.”

Our interviews with emerging and established artists made it clear that the nature of an artist’s relationship with their “homeland” can vary widely. For Christine Do, a queer Vietnamese artist, a publication centering the “homeland” can be an opportunity for the diaspora to “learn more about their culture from their home country and see [that their home country’s culture has value beyond a Western perspective].” But for Joshua Obra, a mixed Filipino actor, the impetus of a publication project could be a vehicle for “exploring” a part of himself that he didn’t yet know fully but had already intuited through objects and dishes imparted to him by his mother. Thus, cultural identity can either drive fieldwork that acts as personal self-discovery or be part of a broader mission to improve public perception of one’s homeland and create potential for equitable two-way exchange.

We also asked three emerging Filipino artists their thoughts on limiting the sharing of their work exclusively to the Filipino and Filipino-Canadian communities. This speaks to one of the original inspirations of this grant, “the possibility of limiting the scale of distribution in publishing to a smaller community or cultural group.” The consensus was that sharing one’s work with a larger audience adds value, and that sharing Filipino culture with anyone interested in it is an intrinsic part of this particular culture. However, it might be possible, and even ideal, to maintain this sense of universality while adding a layer of information akin to a sort of inside joke understood by a few. (If you know, you know.)

Participants at our July Kwago webinar were prompted with the question, “What does diaspora mean to you?” Many of the responses received via email included the word homeland or home to describe ties to lineage, whether in the Philippines or elsewhere. One of the webinar participants, academic Marvin Veloso, wrote about diaspora as “. . . an elusive thing that takes on multiple forms, gestures, and oralities,” describing “an "archipelagic diaspora" that invites an active engagement with history, that prompts us to map-out our own constellations across time, language, culture and being.” Czyka Tumaliuan’s work presented at the Kwago webinar emphasizes knowledge-sharing for Filipinos in the Philippines and abroad. Publishers like Kwago offer tangible ways to stay connected to one’s homeland and the current political and economic conditions that its cultural workers must respond to. Books, films, and other forms of published media enable members of a diaspora to gather around cultural knowledge and exchange ideas, hopes, dreams, common experiences, and resources.

5.0 Opportunities and Barriers

“We learned early on of the power of handing a stack of publications to potential collaborators, fellow travelers, and curators who might include our work in an exhibition or public initiative. The booklets transmit our values and our aesthetic concerns in one of the most powerful and direct ways we can think of.” - Temporary Services^[k], Publishing in the Realm of Plant Fibers and Electrons (2014)

Barriers

• Knowing where to begin in the publishing process
• Knowing how the ISBN process works
• Finding online resources about publishing
• Securing funding to publish a book and familiarizing yourself with budgets
• Ensuring a publisher’s values and expectations align with your vision
• Distinguishing between different publishers and their specializations and offers
• Ensuring a book reaches physical stores and an audience
• Reaching the desired public or target audience with a publication
• Finding the venue or partner for a book launch
• Investing in a longer run

• One of the benefits of working with a publisher is having access to printing partners and being able to invest in a longer initial run of printed books. Longer runs ensure that more profit is made per book but require a larger initial investment and associated risk of not selling the inventory

Opportunities

• Innovative distribution models

• I.e. isolarii, Kwago, Slow Editions, Boot Boyz Biz, Issues Mag Club, Ugly Duckling Presse

• Community engagement

• Launch events
• Community gatherings
• Book fairs
• Workshops
• Exhibitions

• Education around printing process

• For artists, learning the printing process can remove unseen costs and possibly shape the final physical artifact as a consideration right from the start.
• Temporality: From the very beginning, acknowledging ephemerality or a limited shelf life as a reality and a decision. Translating this into the chosen paper, materials, design. Knowing that local printing plants sustain themselves off of commercial and packaging print jobs for the majority of the day which get printed at a rate of tens of thousands per minute.
• Customer’s proof vs Printer’s proof
• Short vs Long run

• Publishing as generative

• Having a reason for collaboration

• “I didn’t want to limit myself to working only with friends. I was interested in working with artists I truly admired and wanted to create an accessible edition together. With every collaboration, I want the work to exist as a multiple and spread to more people, because I love it so much.. I want to collaborate with artists to make very beautiful and special objects.” - Eunice Luk
• “Slow Editions is an extension of my practice that I turn to for collaborations. Often I would, under the premise of developing something together or having more conversations together, get to know people better through the press.” - Eunice Luk

• Working with artists in a completely unique and individual process

• Working through hard skills such as writing, designing, and producing visual content

• “I think there is so much beauty in writing, and you know I grew up reading a lot to escape a lot of things, which helped me develop into this visual artist and storyteller. I feel like [I’m] doing this full circle moment. You know, overcoming.” - Christine Do

• Publishing as care

• “We wanted to collaborate with others in building another kind of structure that takes care of more people and replaces the top-down, protected enclave… Self-representation and advocacy for our peers has been a healthy alternative to the capitalist, individualist, market-driven art world where artists are managed by galleries and handlers.” - Temporary Services, Publishing in the Realm of Plant Fibers and Electrons (2014)

• Publishing as a “business plan” for artists 

• “Shifting gears from working on your book to writing your book proposal is the moment where you step into your official role as small business owner, in addition to author. Because that’s what being an author is: your writing is a business, you make products, and you try to sell them… But if you want to be a published author, at some point, the business hat has to go on, and you need to learn to distance yourself Google Earth-style from your art so that you can understand how the industry movers and shakers are going to see it.” - Jeanna Kadlec  https://www.jeannakadlec.com/book-proposal-coaching-1-consultation 

• Emerging existing publications focused on self-publishing, democratizing book-making, and the “how-to”s

• Publish Your Photography Book (2023): https://www.publishyourphotographybook.com/ 

• Publishing in the Realm of Plant Fibers and Electrons by Temporary Services (2014)

6.0 Media Forms Across Diaspora

We explored media forms that have historically been integrated into Filipino culture and oral histories, teasing out the lessons they might offer and which could be translated as publishing strategies for emerging and newcomer artists in Canada. These could also be presented to newcomer artists to make it easier to understand the changing role and functions of publishing.

• Coffee table book

• “The idea of the coffee table book is that you want a longer shelf life. So again, part of the discussion in publishing is if you’re publishing a magazine, is it a monthly magazine? So after somebody reads it, they throw it away. So from there, you know right away that I don’t want to spend money on making expensive paper or putting glossy finish because it doesn’t make sense. However, if you’re selling Sports Illustrated, for example, you notice everything is high gloss because our eyes like to see glossy images. But on the other hand, if you’re publishing a book that has more drama, you want it to be flat. So those are the options that has to be sort of addressed, even prior to doing your photography because printing flat colour as opposed to gloss, your photography might actually change as well. If you factor those variables, it’s wise to look at the finished product first that way.” —Andre Soriano
• Think about… Shelf life

• Map
          

• Think about… Information that allows us to return to and interface with the physical world

• Astronomical Map

• Kidlat Tahimik:
• 
• Think about… Non-Western ways of navigating said world

• Textile
  

• Think about… Collective rather than Individual authorship
• Ref: https://anthillfabrics.com/products/ph-handloomed-textiles-hardcover-table-book 

• Arnis
  

• Think about… Concealing and revealing certain kinds of knowledge around certain audiences, i.e. Moro-Moro dances concealing then-banned martial art form of arnis during colonial era
• Ref: https://www.scribd.com/document/29019443/ARNIS 

• Balikbayan Box
  

• Think about… Diaspora and their material connection to homeland… Sending knowledge or stories across continents instead of “things”…
• “The Balikbayan box has so much significance over just a box. It is representative of the kind of income disparity of the Filipinos that moved to Canada, and the family that they left behind. The things that are given [in the box] are that would typically be too expensive to buy or more expensive to buy abroad. Also, it’s kind of this physical connection that is made between those that are existing in a different country, miles away.”
  —Miguel Soriano

• WhatsApp Group Chat/FB
  

• Think about… Limiting access to a community and thereby increasing impact or exclusivity

• “Linktree”
  
  

• Think about… Connecting to an ecosystem of web pages and resources that are hosted elsewhere

Appendix: Timeline

March 2024

• March 2, 2024

• Community feedback session at Xpace Cultural Centre
• This feedback session was aimed at reaching a broad public of emerging artists, designers, and students interested in publishing their work and getting an in-depth look at the community-based process behind making a book. At the end of the presentation, participants shared potential ideas for their own publication projects and how these projects might bring out and unite a community around a particular interest (i.e. food and shared kitchens, fitness and outdoor fitness)
• Themes: navigating space, city, and community (field, culture, and place-specific)  

• March 11, 2024

• Open call for Research Assistant posted

• An open call for a Research Assistant position was made public on Instagram and garnered a total of 32 applications from a diverse group of people interested in publishing: artists, writers, photographers, video producers, dancers, textile artists, political scientists, curators, and more. This is proof that publishing (and thus a publishing project) can engage a broad spectrum of fields and disciplines within the arts and beyond. Most candidates were based in Toronto or Montreal, and many had existing interests within Filipino cultural and diaspora studies that they sought to further explore through Publishing Across Diaspora
• 30-minute meetings were set up with prospective candidates, resulting in the recruitment of not only a research assistant, but emerging and newcomer artists to be interviewed as research consultants and contributors to the writing and editing of the research report
• Other things that happened:

• I was sent two poetry books
• I met a friend’s sister
• I was reunited with someone I went to high school with
• I met the author of a critical paper I’d read, about an exhibition I co-curated
• I was offered to be “serenaded” with the Philippine National Anthem (lol)

April 2024

• April 1, 2024

• Publishing Across Diaspora officially begins

• April 3-27, 2024

• Interviews with Emerging and Established Artists interested in publishing

• April 3: Interview with Sebastian Clark, isolarii
• April 10: Artist Interview with Gervais Nash
• April 13: Artist Interview with Joshua Obra
• April 17: Artist Interview with Christine Do
• April 27: Artist Interview with Patrick Cruz

• Observations:

• Artist interviewees shared that it “felt good to talk out loud about ideas, and in turn got more clarity and direction,” and that the interviews felt like a consultation of sorts
• When asking people “what is your dream book idea?” and taking the time to listen, you will often be surprised by the breadth and intricacy of their ideas—dream books that have been perched on a shelf in their minds
• Across the four interviews, the dream books were to some degree rooted in cultural identity, or seen as a potential vehicle to get closer to this identity
• Generally, the artists were not sure where to begin in the publishing world, but felt positively about the idea of an intimate and interactive book launch

• April 24, 2024

• Group call

• Teresa Valenton
• Krissie Cruz

• Literature scan and case study gathering
• Interview transcriptions analyzed and key soundbites identified

May 2024

• May 3 - 31, 2024

• Bianca in Manila

• May 11, 2024

• Community feedback session in Manila at the Goethe-Institut Philippines

• May 19, 2024

• Community feedback session in La Union at Anges with Kwago

June 2024

• June 5, 2024

• Interview on Policy and Printing

• Andre Soriano
• Miguel Soriano

• June 15, 2024

• Interview on Filipino Diaspora and Practice

• Revill Villanueva 
• Averill Dimabuyu 
• John Delante

• Barriers and opportunities for arts publishing and self publishing identified
• Observations:

• This month’s calls were fewer and more sparsely spaced than in April, but they were dense with insights and honed in specifically on the interviewees’ areas of specialty: Printing, Policy, Filipino diasporic art practice
• With the new format of group calls, a solid sense of community began to emerge. Our Filipino-Canadian artists met each other for the first time and found commonalities, and the expertise of printer and research consultant Andre Soriano revealed the future potential of continuing workshops or educational events
• We spent time refining the publishing case studies and processing the fieldwork that took place in the Philippines in the previous month, and started moving towards condensing, connecting, and making sense of a now-large amount of content
• Lead researcher Bianca met Eunice Luk serendipitously at a birthday picnic at Trinity Bellwoods. Bianca, Zoe, and Eunice will meet again online for a research consultation interview in July

July 2024

• July 10, 2024

• Interview with Eunice Luk, Slow Editions

• July 15, 2024

• Kwago Webinar

• Czyka Tumaliuan
• Marvin Velo
• Gani Cabezas
• Anna Sarmento
• John Delante
• Krissie Cruz
• Kath Zarargoza
• Revill Villanueva
• Miguel Soriano
• Vanessa Holyoak

• July 20-24, 2024

• Bianca in Montréal

• In-person writing session on “Diaspora and Cultural Identity”
• Field Research at Maktaba Bookshop^[l], came across Publish Your Photography Book

• Observations:

• We are getting the document primed and ourselves ready to publicly share this research. The Kwago webinar was a small glimpse of the catharsis and mutual inspiration that can come from being vulnerable in this way
• A brief trip to Montreal led to serendipitous encounters, new discoveries, and enriched meetings between members of the Publishing Across Diaspora research team (who are currently split between Toronto and Montreal)
• Lead researcher Bianca shared the Research Document and some early event ideas with Reza Nik at SHEEEPstudio/SHEEEPschool and secured a venue partner for dissemination at the conclusion of this research. October 13 will be a great and cosmically aligned day!

August 2024

• August 12, 2024

• Tour of Tower Litho Printing Plant with Andre Soriano, Scarborough

• Design of Publishing Across Diaspora brochure/manual/map
• Visualization of pathways for community response
• Observations:

• We are coming to a slowdown with work in production, as we look towards the October launch and the opportunity to share our work in real time
• Just as the launch event becomes a filter with which to view the research we’ve amassed, deciding what cross over to the other side—the vessel of the pamphlet is the next step of filtering our research—a sequence of frames that reveal what is most important to share with a particular audience

October 2024

• October 9th

• Publication of results (print) in Publishing Across Diaspora Map pamphlet

• October 13th

• Presentation of final outcomes in Toronto Community feedback session with SHEEEP School

• Recommendations validated by industry players and others
• October 13th-15th

• Zoë in Toronto
• PAD launch and field research

• Observations:

• As this project comes to its elegant end we feel privileged to be able to gather in person and collectively review the entire compilation of our research. Reza said that he saw multiple disparate communities that we both share, coming together in one space (such is the multidisciplinary quality of publishing). Others observed that seeing the findings and artist quotes in the printed pamphlet was empowering, and many commented on the quality and impression left by the paper type (such is the power of well-designed, printed matter)

Appendix: Dissemination

This research will be shared in three formats:

• Digital document: what you are reading currently. This will be shared via email, Instagram, LinkedIn, and amplified through cultural partners at the conclusion of this grant
• Physical document: beautiful pamphlet designed for emerging and immigrant artists interested in publishing, summarizing the basic ABCs of publishing, Opportunities and Barriers, and Publisher and Artist Case Studies
• Final celebration at SHEEEP studio (https://sheeep.school) on October 13

Appendix: Mutual Aid Across Diaspora

Fundraising for Anges and Czyka Tumaliuan, recovery after Super Typhoon Gaemi