The problem publishing has always had is that it is both art and commerce, and these two identities clash. Dwelling in the Margins, written and published by art publishers about art publishing in Aotearoa, is rife with this discomfort. It is, as editor Katie Kerr asserts in the introduction, neither a history nor a study. So what is it?
In the main it feels quite exclusive (and fairly white). It's telling that the chapter written by Matariki Williams (Ngāi Tūhoe, Ngāti Hauiti, Taranaki, Ngāti Whakaue) on creating ATE Journal of Māori Art, is about leaving Pākehā art publishing circles to create something new.
My favourite chapter by far was "Dear Reader" by Louise Menzies. She presents copies of letters written in 1979 around the publication of Joanna Margaret Paul's The Lone Goose; an odd wee staple-bound colouring book for tamariki that will hopefully be reprinted soon. In a letter to Joanna, Brian Turner wrote: "Neither John [McIndoe] nor I have the foggiest idea how it will go. We both like it but know that it will appeal only to what John refers to as 'us' and not 'them'." What follows is a marketing spat so splendid that I immediately wanted to know the full histories of everyone involved.
Later on this theme continues in "We'll do it without them", by Samuel Walsh and Dominic Hoey, about the creation of their publishing house Dead Bird Books in 2020 and their failed search for a distributor. This is what art publishing can be at its best: the creation of pukapuka (books) that are unexpected, difficult to classify, ahead of their time – and, vitally, getting them out to new readers.
One of the ideas mentioned in Dwelling in the Margins is that of an imaginary library containing pukapuka that might have been, or never were, or could still be. I developed the nagging sense that Dwelling in the Margins was pointing me in the direction of two such books that I now very much want to read: a history of book marketing in Aotearoa (the more gossipy the better), and a practical guide to how art publishers and other small presses can get their pukapuka out to more kaipānui (readers). Dwelling in the Margins has glints of both that left me wanting more.
