#31: Printed Matter St. Marks

2nd ave zine scene

The Shop: Printed Matter St Marks

Ukrainian Village, Manhattan: 38 St Marks Place

Printed Matter’s tiny Saint Marks Place outpost is basically the gift shop for the Swiss Institute, a free and highly cool space for contemporary art exhibitions. I came for the zines, but ended up enjoying a stroll through the gausey, dreamy draperies of the current Rosemary Mayer retrospective in the space! Despite small shelf space, the Printed Matter selection here does what Printed Matter does best-- spectacular looking zines and art books with the hip factor through the roof. Unfortunately, pretty much everything there comes with a heavy price tag. You may ask yourself: “do I really need to drop $20 on an eight page risograph printed zine of 70s cigarette company logos?” With so much style and relatively little substance, I often end up putting my finances first. Ultimately, I’d say this spot is cool if you’re on 2nd avenue fiending for a zine fix, but the experience here is nowhere near as fun as browsing at their gargantuan Chelsea location or as affordable as their quirky Brooklyn competitor Quimby’s. That said, the poster game in this spot is not to be scoffed at.

What I got:

Eyes on My Eyes

This short and funky comic from Daniel Shepard and SVA Risolab follows a degenerate eyeball guy causing chaos in a world full of… other eyeball guys. Must read for eyeball guy guys.

Los Amantes Sticker Pack

I love funky stickers and these bad boys also by Daniel Shepard are pretty dope! All taken from his 2020 lockdown sketchbook of the same name.

Tense

This zine from Lucy Lippard and Jerry Kearns samples vintage black and white EC Comics horror panels with prose that reads like film noir on mescaline. Just a taste: “What happened between her and Santa Claus in the Trojan wars? She had a great gift and he zapped it. Rode her gift horse to death after looking it in the eye and kicking it in the teeth.”