Books at Rebel Press
Photo: Mark Amery
This weekend, small printers and independent publishers from across Aotearoa will meet in Ōtepoti Dunedin to exchange ideas at the Small Press Fest.
The festival reflects a shift from the internet to the community among young creatives, with an emphasis on the ability to create your own print media. Sustainability is also kept in mind, with printers more likely to print small runs of books themselves and use recycled paper – rather than sending PDFs to China for mass production.
The printer currently working on a book about Small Press Fest 2023 and 2024 and the recent resurgence of independent publishing in Aotearoa is Pōneke ‘underground publisher’ 5ever Books.
5ever books is jointly run by Sasha Francis, Achille Segard and Renae Williams
Photo: supplied
5ever Books is co-owned by Sasha Francis, Achille Segard and Renae Williams from Rebel Press, which also owns Freedom Shop, Left of the Equator and Lawrence and Gibson.
5ever publishes an impressive number of books each year, with authors encouraged to come to the centre to help create their own books.
5ever Offices
Photo: Mark Amery
“We print, glue, bind and cut up annoying, damp little books,” 5ever proudly proclaims. But if you look at Renae Williams’ own 2023 poetry collection, Butter on Toast the Next Morning – which she reads from on RNZ’s Culture 101 – they can look just as sophisticated as the books from the publishing giants.
With the goal of democratizing book production, 5ever also uses its machines to help others produce their own books, zines and posters.
“With traditional publishing, you have to overcome a lot of hurdles,” says Sasha Francis. “We’re taking a completely different approach that’s about community, about spending time together, sharing knowledge, resources and Kai.”
“The book or the fanzine is a kind of output – a byproduct of this relationship. But the content is also perhaps a little more experimental. We are not at all driven by profit or how many books we will sell.”
Similar to direct action, 5ever says every dollar goes first to paper, printing, binding glue and paying authors.
Notebooks for Prisoners Poster
Photo: Mark Amery
“No middlemen, no Facebook advertising campaigns. We make our own poster glue. We deliver to bookstores on foot. We dig through garbage containers for paper waste. We cook and provide our own catering for the book launch!”
5ever also runs a successful ‘Prisoners’ Notebooks’ project, where a network of volunteers produce and distribute notebooks from recycled paper to prisoners in all prisons across Aotearoa. The notebooks are a collage of paper and reused images, inspire creativity and have been distributed in the thousands so far. To support these and other projects, 5ever collects and reuses paper scraps and waste from local commercial printing companies.
Important information Exhibition of 5ever Books
Photo: supplied
5ever books’ work also includes posters. A major exhibition called “Important Information” is currently running at Enjoy Contemporary Art Space in Pōneke, featuring multiple layers of street posters and a five-volume archive of previous independent posters in the city. The exhibition runs until Saturday, August 31, culminating with a panel discussion on the final day from 1-4pm.
They spoke to Mark Amery from RNZ’s Culture 101.
Street art project for the exhibition “Important Information”
Photo: 5ever Books
Example of a prisoner notebook distributed by Wilder
Photo: Mark Amery
