Artists' books are a platform for personal expression created without censorship or outside influence. They are a medium of expression that employs the structure of a book as an inspiration while challenging the conventional contents of a printed volume. Artists' books are produced in limited numbers and are classified as works of art, typically produced by a single creator. The Artists' Book Collection features books from the 1970s to present day.
Spare Rib is a magazine for and by Women's Liberation, with essays, comics, and reviews. Tis issue looks at topics including extremism in the Women's Movement, marital rape, the intersections of sexism with race and nationality.
Zines, derived from "magazines," are alternative publications constructed using inexpensive, easily accessible materials. Zines, as a genre, have historically been used by political, social, and counterculture movements to easily and inexpensively proliferate information. Zines are often created in a cooperative, utilizing multiple mediums of expression from poets, essayists, and visual artists. In 2017, the University Archives and Special Collections at FGCU began actively collecting zines to be included in the Spring 2018 exhibition Rape Culture. The collection has a strong focus on sexual assault, women's studies, and the LGBTQIA+ community. Note that language is a constantly evolving construct and therefore the tags, keywords, and subject headings attributed to the zines may be considered unacceptable by contemporary and future standards as well as social norms. The archives intent is to preserve the historical record which may include harmful language when viewed through a 21st century lens. To modify the language would be an act of erasure of the creators' lived experience.
