Zines Forever! at the Wellcome Collection

Posted on June 16, 2025 in Diversity & Inclusivity, INTO, London

Curator Dr Lea Cooper and artists Holly Casio and Chloe Heffernan on zines’ ineffable essence

They prance around the land of self-publishing like wild horses. They are DIY and made to tell unheard stories. They’re a statement of authenticity, propelled by the urgency of conveying a certain message rather than the logic of profit. Other than these, zines don’t follow any rule, don’t have a standard shape or format, and are pretty undefinable. All of this inspired Dr Lea Cooper to create the Zine Spectrum, a tool that helps people get a sense of what a zine is, rather than feeding them its definition. Dr Cooper is also the curator of Zines Forever! DIY Publishing and Social Justice, an exhibition currently displayed at the Wellcome Collection.

As an artist and zine maker themselves, Dr Cooper was initially more interested in exploring what zines do and why people make them, rather than what zines are. But inevitably the question presented itself again while evaluating the Wellcome’s zine collection. 

What’s a zine? More often than not, the answer to this question feels blurry, Dr. Cooper tells SYP, This blurriness made me think about contemporary visualisation of the autistic spectrum. The linear spectrum with ‘autistic’ at one end and ‘not autistic’ at the other, is now being replaced by the colour spectrum, with different colours representing different experiences or qualities or dimensions of autism, like sensory processing, hyperfocus, and non-verbal communication. I thought that this might offer an interesting way of visualising zines.’

Similarly to the colour spectrum, the Zine Spectrum – which was created in collaboration with exhibition designer Martin McGrath – aims to capture the many shades of the values, qualities or practices that are important in zine making. For example: “not for profit”, “reproducible”, “limited distribution”.

Fake DIY is a zine about zine culture and making that can be held and read at the exhibition. Creator Holly Casio is an artist who’s made zines – among other things – for the last 25 years and has widely blogged about them. Casio, who is also curator of Tate Britain’s zine collection and and co-founder of the Queer Zine Library, in Fake DIY writes that zines are essentially ‘a tool of resistance’ and anti-capitalist: ‘I truly believe that they can’t or shouldn’t be separated from their radical and political history. The whole idea behind them was to create something quickly, cheaply, and with no skill whatsoever and most importantly to disseminate them as cheaply as possible.’ Zines can be about anything, they can be personal or express radical values or call to action.  ‘They exist outside of the algorithm and can’t be monitored by Meta,’ Casio explains to SYP,  ‘The power of being able to hold a physical tangible document which reflects experiences and ideas and communities and art feels very radical and important to me.’ 

Even though their major strength is equally their major downside, with a zine being easily co-opted as a marketing tool like Kanye West and Vans have previously done. Although unwelcome, certain “absorptions” seem unavoidable, given  the natural absence of a clear-cut definition of what a zine is or isn’t, ‘Which means that some capitalist commodities or other types of publications can refer to themselves as zines.’ Casio, who once turned down the opportunity to run a zine workshop for Meta employees at Facebook, says that the radical roots of zines should never be overlooked or forgotten. ‘Zine makers, zine readers and zine librarians must be aware of them, even if a zine is just silly and irreverent and fun. All self-publishing is indeed radical, but the DIY nature of zines is more than an aesthetic, it’s an anti-capitalist framework for getting things done.’

Additionally, zines’ DIY nature thrives in the realm of analogue even in the digital age. Dependant Alarm by Chloe Heffernan is a core element of Zine Forever! that depicts the everyday invisible struggles of a primary caregiver. Drawings feature messy neglected apartments, conversations at the chemist’s, the inevitable beds and electrical devices; Heffernan has printed them on paper in the more traditional zine format, and also embroidered them on the “shroud”, a piece of fabric that can be folded like a zine. ‘You can make a zine out of a napkin or a receipt – and it only adds to their charm!’ Heffernan explains to SYP, ‘They’re anti AI, they’re innately human and innately scruffy and strange. I suspect this is a rebellion against social media and feeling so trapped in communicating solely in an online realm – there’s a physicality and hands-on nature that can never be taken away or devalued.’

Most importantly, zines offer marginalised voices an organic space for self-expression. ‘They can be read by one person or thousands and both are as impactful because the real catharsis is to process feelings, thoughts, and emotions,’ says Heffernan, ‘Personally, I struggle to verbally communicate my problems thanks to a concoction of neurodivergence, and zines have always offered a concise and safe way to think, speak, and share my feelings.’  Accessible creation is key: ‘A disabled person can make a zine from bed; a voice that wouldn’t otherwise be heard or listened to. It’s a non-confrontational medium, and It is entirely your space, however you identify, and however you feel. It can be messy and it can be neat; it can be angry or it can be sad. It is space for a hyper-fixation info dump or it can be  a slither of a moment from your day from Tuesday – and all of them have inherent worth.’

You can visit Zine Forever! until the 15th of September 2025. You can learn more about Dr. Lea Cooper’s work on Zine Jam, view Holly Casio’s zines and comics on Cool Schmool, discover more art by Chloe Heffernan on her website.

Written by Annapaola Paparo