QUARANZINE, edited and organized by Marc Fischer QUARANZINE was published as a five color Risograph prints, one color per issue, in an edition size of approximately 100-175 copies of each issue. Most of the issues of QUARANZINE were pasted up around Chicago and given away during the run of its publication. The exhibition at the IMRC Center is a presentation of all 100 of the issues of QUARANZINE so that the viewers will get to see the full run of the publication and the diversity and creativity of the publication.
Some information directly from Marc Fischer:
“By Friday, March 13th, I felt the full importance of staying home to slow the spread of coronavirus, and so I began to shelter in place. With the exception of a quick trip to Walgreens to pick up a prescription, one more grocery trip, and walks outside, away from people to get air and move my legs, I’ve been hunkered down at home with my wife Jen, an academic advisor who is now working remotely. Most of the things I want to do creatively and am employed to do are not possible now or have to be changed in a way that requires me to stay home. Teaching is on pause or moving online. Book fairs and related events are canceled or postponed. Other Public Collectors projects are impossible to continue in any realistic way until it is safe to do so.
I did not want to stop making things, however. I had just ordered more ink and master film for the RISOGRAPH and I have been hoarding odd amounts of paper for years. The name QUARANZINE occurred to me (as it did to multiple other self-publishers as a shared epiphany) and I decided that one-page zines would a way I would occupy my time and brain to get through this pandemic and all of the anxiety that has come with it. The zines would also be a way to collaborate with others outside of any kind of institutional framework, returning to the spirit of sharing and generosity that made me start Public Collectors to begin with. Since March 15th, that is what I have been making. Every day I make a new issue and if I miss a day, I make two the next day. Each person or idea gets both sides of a single sheet of paper. I’m printing about 100-175 copies of each issue. Some will go to the contributors, I’ve been hanging some on utility poles, bus shelters and dumpsters around my neighborhood during solitary walks, and the bulk will be turned into complete sets to sell or give to libraries later.”