Paper Cuts examines twenty-five years of independent publishing in the United States through a collection of more than 600 zines and small-press publications gathered and researched by Christopher Kardambikis over the past decade. Developed through extensive travel, studio visits, and sustained conversations with artists and publishers across the country, the project documents a distributed and largely self-organized field of artistic production operating outside commercial and institutional publishing structures.
The exhibition presents a focused selection from the collection alongside a large-scale visual installation reflecting the breadth and density of the archive. Three guest curators—publishers working within distinct communities—develop thematic reading tables that offer distinct interpretive frameworks shaped by queer publishing, Black-led editorial platforms, and DIY print networks. Together, these perspectives situate individual works within broader systems of production, exchange, and circulation that have defined independent publishing in the early twenty-first century.
