Jo Cook and Owen Plummer

The Lowdown: Art zines, comics, colouring books, illustrated scrolls, and everything in between will appear in a summer reading-room installation entitled Cyclops Dreams. Organized by Cook and Plummer, this interactive exhibit comprises select pieces from their formidable individual collections of outstanding book work, plus more than 200 publications produced for the show by veterans and beginners from across Canada, Norway, the U.K., and the U.S.

Coordinates: Cyclops Dreams opens at 8 p.m. on Friday (July 22) at Access Artist Run Centre (206 Carrall Street) and runs until August 20. A zine trade show and magic performance take place August 12 at the gallery.

Process oriented: One part art exhibit, two parts library, Cyclops Dreams presents a diverse array of self-published material created anywhere from a decade ago to weeks before the opening. The installation maps the tastes and somewhat obsessive interests of the organizers and introduces a new group of producers to what appears to be a thriving medium here in Vancouver. As with mail art, networking through sharing is essential to the practice of many independent zine artists. Formal exhibitions like this one also allow for a wide range of folks to discover what Cook and Plummer already know.

What it all means: "We're hoping that people will come in and see there are so many different ways to express themselves, and then they'll rush home and make their own books and maybe send us a copy," says Plummer in an interview at the gallery. "There's a whole network of people who trade books, and it just keeps evolving and growing," finishes Cook.