“What the photocopier was to zines, we hope The People’s E-book will be to digital books”
It is the brainchild of Greg Albers, the founder and publisher of Hol Art Books, who has partnered with The Present Group (Oakland, CA), an arts-based think tank and creative studio whose projects focus on leveraging new technologies in support of the arts and finding new ways to fund and distribute artists projects.
A Kickstarter campaign is underway to fund the project.
From the pitch:
The People’s E-book brings e-books into the rich tradition of creative publishing in which artists, authors and independent presses continue to co-opt and re-imagine what books can be. Italian Futurists, Dadaists and Surrealists pushed the limits of letterpress printing at the turn of the century. In the 1930s, artists and political activists alike made use of the new mimeograph for quick, cheap, portable printing of reasonable quality. By the 1960s color offset printing was coming into range of affordability and underground newspapers and magazines flourished. And while Fluxus and mail artists continued in the Dada tradition, creating and distributing unusual publications around the globe, the late 60s and 70s also saw the rise of the photocopier, that most humble of machines. The photocopier made possible a massive movement of punk and art zines, and a DIY publishing tradition that continues to this day. Thousands of people, making thousands of books.
The People’s E-Book | Kickstarter:
full disclosure – I am a happy backer of the project