By Shriveling Press
I'm of the opinion that art zines live and die on their reproduction.
This isn't to say that an art zine has to be printed in colour on glossy paper, but that the presentation matches the intent of the creator. Sometimes grainy black and white photocopies are the best way to see certain types of art because that's how they're supposed to be seen.
"So," you may be wondering, "does the reproduction on The Inbetweens II portray the art in an effective and attractive way?". The answer is unfortunately "no".
The contents of this zine are mostly reproductions of colour paintings and photographs. And while the actual pieces seem, in some cases, pretty nice, it's hard to say for sure because they're printed in a grainy and blurry way with all the vagaries and limitations of an ink jet printer.
Even the black and white pieces suffer because they seem to have been scanned, and then printed, in colour. Instead of true black and white, they end up being made up of endless dirty browns and greys. While this can be used to good effect in some cases, here it seems more an accident of the process, and not a conscious decision.
I feel a bit bad saying all of this because someone clearly put a lot of care and effort into this zine. It's bound by thread, which even if it doesn't take that much longer than stapling (I actually don't know) certainly seems more personal that the zines I make.
In another format, with a more focused idea of the contents, and better printing, the pieces in here could be a lot more appealing, but as it is I just feel a bit disappointed at what could have been.
