Edinburgh Zine Festival is an exciting new partnership between Fruitmarket and Edinburgh Zine Library, bringing a zine-shaped space to Fruitmarket’s annual celebration of artists’ book culture. The Edinburgh Zine Festival will take place alongside the Artists’ Bookmarket in Spring 2022, over the weekend of 14th and 15th May.

Edinburgh Zine Festival will be an affordable, accessible, welcoming, and inclusive space to explore DIY self-publishing and zines. There will also be in person and virtual elements. Applications for physical tables open Dec 20th 2021 and close Feb 27th 2022.

What’s the difference between zines and artists books? We like to refer to Holly Casio’s excellent essay on ‘The economy of zines’. Whilst Casio acknowledges that zines are difficult to define - something that we probably have no business doing anyway-, she suggests that what really matters is that zines are non-profit, operating in a different economy of gifts, swaps and trades. Boiled down - zines don’t cost much and this will be reflected in our tables!  

The Edinburgh Zine Festival will provide a space for non-profit forms of self-publishing, showcasing some of the amazing and exciting things happening in zines. A zine festival happening in tandem with the artists’ bookmarket will also illuminate some of the exciting overlaps and intersections between zines, artists' books and other forms of self-publishing.

We especially want to offer tables to people often underrepresented at zine fairs and you can read more about our priorities when assigning tables here. We recognise that money can be a barrier to tabling at zine fairs, especially for people from marginalised groups, so we are offering subsidised tables, and working to fund contributions to travel and accomodation costs for zinesters who need it.#

About Edinburgh Zine Library

Founded in 2017, Edinburgh Zine Library is an independent, collectively run, and grassroots reference library of contemporary zines currently hosted by the Art and Design Library, Edinburgh Central Library. Alongside managing the collection, the zine library runs events and workshops. Find out more @edinburghzinelibrary on Instagram or Facebook, @edzinelibrary on Twitter or at www.edinburghzinelibrary.com.