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PUBLIC 74: Publishing Artists

PUBLIC

URL: https://www.publicjournal.ca
Call For Paper Type: Regular
H2 Index: 0
Submission Date: 2026-03-02
Notification Date: 2026-03-27

Literature & Writing Visual Arts Crafts, Design & Arts Education

CALL FOR PROPOSALS

PUBLIC 74: Publishing Artists

Edited by Jayne Wilkinson

(Fall 2026)

THEME

The seventy-fourth issue of PUBLIC considers publishing as a unique form of artistic practice, one with its own concepts and methods, canons and anti-canons, legacies and futures. In the last decade, artist-led publishing has continued to evolve, as new generations of artists find ways to build publics, networks, and experimental communities by distributing, sharing, printing, reproducing, and exchanging artwork. This broad resurgence continues amid a flourishing of international art book fairs that are producing new opportunities and models, even as dedicated bookstores face increasing precarity. What role does this expansive medium—publishing as an aesthetic medium—take up in the contemporary art world? What are the textures and nuances of publishing as an artistic practice? What defines publishing as a method of artmaking, and what distinguishes it from other types of independent or DIY publishing? How are artists creating structures of exchange to share ideas outside or parallel to established art markets? Can artist-led publishing offer a more democratic, accessible experience of art, and what are the capacities for the expression of more radical thought in aesthetics?

“Publishing artists” refers to both a type of artistic practice—that is, artists who publish as their primary creative output—and the activities, or responsibilities, of organizations and institutions that publish artists’ work, which encompass finding new modes of distribution across changing audiences, online and IRL. This issue of PUBLIC is an exercise in thinking through the conceptual, historical, and social tendencies of both artist-led and institutional approaches; foregrounding artists’ perspectives but also including the work of scholars, writers, activists, and researchers who contextualize diverse and varied methods of publishing in the current moment.

TOPICS

Books, magazines, objects: Artist books, editions, photobooks, print cultures, printed matter; flat aesthetics; artist-run magazines; reproduction and appropriation; exhibitions in print.

Distribution: Art book fairs and the public sphere; social networks; distribution; libraries, archives, and repositories.

Histories: Conceptual and post-conceptual legacies/histories; institutional critique.

Public sphere: Politics, activisms, radical organizing; critical design; manifestos; collaboration and collectives.

Media: Mail art and forms of exchange; newspapers, flyers, and broadsheets; digital, post-digital, and social media; independent or DIY presses; zines; polls, surveys, questionnaires, directories, and indexes.

+ Any topics tangentially or directly related to artist-led publishing

TYPES OF CONTRIBUTIONS

Academic papers (methodologies, histories, monographs, etc.) [5,000 words]

Experimental, narrative, or personal essays [3,000 words max.]

Dialogues or round tables [2,000 words max.]

Short texts, manifestos, calls for action [1,000–1,500 words]

Photo/image-based essays [1,000–1,500 words]

Poetry [1–5 pieces for consideration]

Artist projects [~1,000 words text + 8 images max.]

+ Ideas that may not fit these categories

PUBLIC is committed to supporting a diversity of voices, ideas, and perspectives in our publishing. We welcome contributions from Black, Brown, Indigenous, and POC scholars, artists, writers, and curators of all abilities, genders, and sexual orientations. In the context of artist-led publishing, we are particularly interested in the perspectives of those whose voices have historically been excluded from its genres.

DEADLINE

March 2, 2026, by 11:59pm (EDT)

To submit a proposal/abstract, visit: publicjournal.ca/submit

About the Editor

Issue 74 guest editor, Jayne Wilkinson, is an art writer, editor, and occasional curator based in Toronto and Berlin. She holds an MA in art history and theory from the University of British Columbia (Vancouver), where her research focused on photographic histories, contemporary image discourses, and the politics of surveillance cultures. She writes essays and reviews for art publications including Artforum, Berlin Art Link, Border Crossings, Camera Austria, C Magazine, e-flux Criticism, esse art + ideas, Momus, and various journals. Previously, she was editor-in-chief at Canadian Art and, since 2022, has worked as a freelance editor on dozens of artists’ books, print projects, and digital platforms. She currently sits on the board of directors of C Magazine and is a member of PUBLIC’s editorial collective.

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PUBLIC 74: Publishing Artists

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