Last Thursday morning the entrance of 100 McCaul Street was filled with the sounds of popcorn and students weaving between one another to get to class. This noisy atmosphere surrounded a tiny market set up in the south side of the lobby: the seventh annual OCAD Zine Fair. First-year graphic design student Kate McDermott was selling zines and pins, with endless illustrations of geometric forms, shapes, and mathematical structures. She said she was interested primarily in “modular space and post Internet aesthetics.” Another table I passed had zines, posters and prints with skeletal, hand-drawn signs and the words “Shitty Horoscopes” written underneath. Without any plot spoilers, I can confirm that they are exactly what their name implies.
Fifth-year student Amrit Brar, who zines under the name “Musterni,” says the project arose from disenchantment with school and a search for stress relief. “It took off on Tumblr in a really weird way, and now I’m putting one out every month,” she explained. Her work is largely “horror and supernatural based.”
Nearly 30 students brought out their collections to sell in the space, giving them an opportunity to showcase much of their personal work, as well as make some money. The only outside group present was WORN Journal. There was a table from OCAD’s new Publication program, as well as a table from the event’s organizers, Zine Library.
The Zine Library was founded in 2007 by a former student and now houses over 2,000 zines and objects, both self-published and handmade. Learning Zone librarian Marta Chudolinska explains it to me as a “community where people can show their zines.” There are zines in every category that you can imagine, from art to queer to politics to comics. The Zine Library at OCAD is also accessible to the public during Learning Zone hours. This is the seventh zine fair hosted by the school, and they said that next year they are looking to expand.
Fourth-year print major Stephanie Chow was selling pins, stickers, cards, hand-bound journals and character plushies. Small, playful looking faces looked up at me from the table, and I wanted to take home the entire pillow collection right on the spot. She described her work as “whimsical and fun… things I see all the time that are interesting colours and shapes. Other characters are things I make up, just combining everyday with made up things.”
It was hard not to purchase everything at the table. As I walked away, a small sticker in the shape of a piece of toast scowled at me from among the quirky, personality-filled wares of the Zine Fair.
