Paper in Artist Publishing Workshop

Learn how paper choices shape your creative practice.

Choosing paper is an essential part of any in-print publishing endeavour. In artist publishing, paper shapes how work is translated to the printed media, felt, and handled. Paper also carries meaning, materially, conceptually and environmentally.

This two-hour workshop offers participants a deeper understanding of how paper choices can support, challenge, deceive or joyfully enhance their work.

Through discussion and hands-on examples, participants will explore different types of paper used in artist books, zines, and photography publications, considering texture, weight, colour, opacity, durability, availability, and a publication's possible post-consumer life, which might be as radical as compostable titles.

This new workshop will also address practical concerns such as cost, sustainability, sourcing, print compatibility and how paper choices shift meaning across editions, collaborations and self-published projects.

Drawing on first-hand experience from artist-led publishing, the session will encourage participants to see paper not simply as a printing surface, but as an active collaborator in the publishing process.

This workshop is suitable for artists and writers at all stages who want to make more intentional, informed and playful decisions about materials when preparing work for publication. Participants are encouraged to bring questions, works-in-progress or ideas they are developing.

Originally conceptualised as an optional add-on ‘module’ to the course Creatives in Publishing: Binding a Path to Being Published and Self-Publishing led by Johanna Tagada Hoffbeck, the workshop welcomes previous participants of the course, as well as those who specifically wish to gain guidance and confidence in this area.