The archive
Somebody has to keep a copy.
Most zines printed in Malaysia exist in runs of fifty, get sold at one fair, and then quietly stop existing. No library asks for them. We ask for them.
We would rather come and get it
If you are anywhere we can reach, we would sooner meet you than have you post anything. Half an hour and a conversation about how the book came to exist — why this, why now, how it was printed, what went wrong. That becomes an interview in the journal, and the archive copy comes back with us.
The object is the easy half to keep. An account of how somebody came to make it, in their own words, is the half that is gone in ten years if nobody asks.
Either way the copy is catalogued the way a library would do it — format, year, page count, size, how it was printed, edition size, language — and that record goes on the work’s page so anyone can find it. Then it goes on a shelf in Kuala Lumpur and stays there. We do not sell it, lend it or scan it.
One day this becomes a book
The plan is a printed record of everything held here — what was made in Malaysia, by whom, and when. We are looking for someone to fund it.
Nothing goes in it without the maker saying yes first. We ask that question every time a work is added, years before anyone prints anything.
Getting a copy to us
Publish something and we will write to arrange a time. If you are far from Klang Valley, or would rather not meet, tell us and we will work something out. Do not post anything yet.
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