Notes from Offprint
and a chance to complete your sendb00ks set
Last weekend, we joined a cool cohort of experimental and independent publishers at 180 Strand to participate in Offprint London.
Our friends Zolo Press kindly suggested we share their stand, and so we set about organising ourselves for our first book fair. Actually, as is often the case, the preparation was a joy. Rana and I reached out to former collaborators to source past publications and spun back and forth from the elegant offices of Mount Street Printers to pick up fresh sleeves. Stages, one of our most coveted editions, took form again, so kindly donated by Thick Press, who gave us 8 more copies. I always thought it telling that the smaller the press, the more generous they are in supporting the project.
We also decided now was the time to make oversized Show Me Your B00ks tees, after the incredible success of our Cou Cou collab. Thank you, Dua Lipa, and all who made this go viral. Our friends at Awaykin put us in touch with a great reworked vintage factory in LA so we could do what we intend: bring back something that may have been overlooked and give it a new life. Louie Jenkins picked these up two days before the fair and hand-printed them in Kentish Town. All this to say, we are a very tiny team and handle every little part of the process before a book, idea, or product gets to you. Thank you for all the patience from our readers over the years; we know the post and logistics are not always as streamlined as the billionairzzz
.
Here pictured wearing the very limited edition vintage Sendb00ks LTD jumpers.
And with our boxes in arms, we descended upon 180, slightly gutted not to be under the cavernous dome of the Tate, but also glad to be so central and a stone’s throw from Reference Point. We were late, but everybody was chill, and we set up our stand betwixt our glorious German neighbours, Editions Taube . Once we were standing proudly before our stock, Jan informed us that we had, in fact, published a book together many years ago, when Warren Bartolo, who was helping us in Paris, translated How to Steal a Book into Maltese.
From the moment the doors opened, readers flooded between the stalls and we did not have a chance to pause. Rana and I were on our feet introducing bookworms to editions for the following three days. I personally was knocked sideways by the polite but elbows-out desire for books and to meet people who had followed the project for years.
On Saturday, while a depressing right-wing march stormed along outside in the rain, shouting and waving England flags, within Offprint, it felt like a balmy celebration of shared stories, a place to learn about one another.
We were opposite Perfect Lives, who share a street with our office and who hosted a small basement party that evening with dusty bottles of Campari and Inpatient Press. There was an incredible reading with Yamina Hashemi from her publication, The Codified Prophet, a poem written upon leaving Tehran. We fell quiet to listen. I recommend everybody buy from and support this fledgling press.
On Saturday morning, before the fair began, Cou Cou Intimates were hosting a talk with Adwoa of Gurls Talk, alongside Alexa Chung, Camille Charriere, Charli Howard, Lea Ogunlami, Liv Little and Rose Colcord. A room full of the coolest, bravest women, all ready to hear each other out. Adwoa asked that during the readings, everybody refrain from recording or documenting, to respect the privacy of each reader. I wasn’t expecting what followed, but I totally wept. The t-shirt OUT OF ORDER, made in collaboration, is a way to not look away from ways we can feel out of order: from miscarriages to depths of depression, to losing our tempers, to loss and desire. Though I read a hell of a lot, I sometimes forget how universal the pain each of us will experience, and the strength that comes from deciding to turn that into art or stories. Thank you, thank you to Cou Cou and Gurls Talk for this encouraging morning.
By Sunday afternoon, two wines in hand, we had sold almost everything, to the point that I was asking people if they could not buy books so that we could keep a full archive.
However, thanks to the return of dearest Marlene and the organisation of her and Stephany, we are offering readers the chance to complete an archive set this week from our archive sale at a great price. Each book has been carefully selected by an artist and remains as relevant now as it will be far into the future. We are also able to offer pick up on the Hackney Road.
As a thank you for your support, we are offering subscribers early access. The archive sale is open exclusively now, before it goes live publicly on Wednesday.
