Join artist Conner Gordon for the launch of Where Does That Flower Bloom, a hand-bound photobook examining the memory of his late grandmother, her death from cancer, and the industrial pollution surrounding her Northern Indiana home. In his talk, Gordon will explore how photography can help us reconcile loss, nostalgia, and ecological uncertainty, as we grapple with the ways that environmental degradation affects us, the people we love, and places we call home. 

GALLERY 3

Participants bring small fragments of visual meaning: pressed flowers, fabric edges, poems, photographs, ticket stubs, and gathered textures. Each is placed gently on the risograph scanner, a surface that becomes both altar and archive.

The resulting scans form the pages of a collective zine, printed on the risograph in a single or double tone. It becomes a record of what was present for the participants: objects held, stories implied, images resting between gesture and ink.

Everyone leaves with a copy of the zine at 5.5 x 8.5 in.

WORKSHOP - RSVP Required.

An experimental panel organized by General Things Press engaged in the experimental nature of books. How it is we come to understand the book form and what it births through the various forms, we as artists, make of it will be of highest concern. Stemming from our individual practices, we will engage as performers of a chorus. The panel will be followed by a Q+A.

GALLERY 3

Join us for an artist lecture with Raeanne Van Zee of BOVINE press that frames the making of a book as an activity of collection—images, writings, objects, days, memories—and demonstrates the process of archiving, then housing the content in the form of the book. Collections are intimate, sacred; they store memory. How does that relationship to content alter the relationship between artist and book?

GALLERY 3

In this personal writing workshop focused on fueling our creative practices, 15 of us will flex our words. There will be a series of prompts. All participants will receive a 16-page journal to respond. The writing is individual, but our experience will be collective—and supportive and relaxed.


WORKSHOP - RSVP Required.

A panel discussion moderated by Peter Miles of is PRESS and Quimby’s Bookstore between Marc Fischer of Public Collectors, Half Letter Press, and Temporary Services, Vera Benschop of Benschop Books, and Eric Von Haynes of Flatlands Press and Quimby’s Bookstore.

These four publishers, who will be exhibiting their work at Staple + Stitch, have all built integrated creative and professional practices actively publishing the work of themselves and others while holding down complementary careers in education, printing, and community building. 

GALLERY 3

Your personal narrative is a powerful tool. We can dismantle the ‘other’ when we trust ourselves with our own stories and are willing to take them into vulnerable spaces.

We will produce a collaborative project through simple zine making in the mediums of drawing, writing, and collage art. Participants are asked to create by engaging with their individual experience and paralleling that with others’ encounters. Through this intimate and investigative process, we delve into kinship and community. Together, we can further understand our current condition through this intersectional workshop.

WORKSHOP - RSVP Required.

This panel brings together library workers who create, collect, and circulate zines as tools of resistance. How can zine collections subvert institutional norms? What does it mean to center the undercommons in academic settings (is it even possible)? What tensions arise when radical materials enter the stacks? We'll explore zine libraries as political acts, and what they teach us about access, labor, and memory. 

GALLERY 3

Khāt is a mail-art project that brings the magic of discovering extraordinary meaning in everyday life through poetry and cross-cultural translation. This conversation with photographer Khalid Ibrahim and publisher Amira Hegazy explores how we can translate cultural experiences, meaning, and interaction through photography, language, and printed material. 

GALLERY 3

A workshop on repurposing risograph print waste. Attendees will learn how to create one-of-a-kind monotype prints using discarded RISO masters & bind their own sketchbooks using paper offcuts and RISO scrap.

All supplies provided, all ages & experience levels welcome!

WORKSHOP - RSVP Required.

In late 2024, Jack Garland debuted his first photobook, 'waco'. After 2 years of work on developing the concept, editing, sequencing, and working with designers and printers 'waco' became a reality that has since been distributed around the world. Join him to hear his insights, mistakes, and step-by-step breakdown on how to make your work into book form. 

GALLERY 3

Flags, Food and Faith is a collection of photographs made primarily in Chicago's South and West side neighborhoods that focuses on Black and Latino-owned small businesses.  Commissioned by the city of Chicago in conjunction with the 2023 citywide planning initiative, the work utilizes environmental portraits and photographs of interior spaces. 

Join us for a presentation of this public artwork with Jonathan Michael Castillo, free books, and book signing.   

GALLERY 3

Opening night of Staple + Stitch Art Book and Print Fair!

We’ll have special pop-up vendors joining us for 1-night only and special events throughout the Fair. Posters by Catdroool, a book giveaway, and more.