After several sold out print runs of Gut Flora I wanted to focus on other projects, but imagined at some point there may be future issues of the zine. Here we are in 2019 and things look quite different. The idea of a women only project feels naïve at best, with many publications causing an air of suspicion at the very least if they aren’t explicitly trans inclusive.
The Chapess came about in part through wanting to share the work of my friends and the people in my immediate social circle, queer people mostly. I was keen to give priority to POC as well as trans friends and the project had always felt inclusive in practice. It was all very DIY, I was making it up as I went along, it’s not like there was a press release. Just as feminism has become a near-meaningless buzz word in some contexts, unfortunately zines and DIY culture have been co-opted in similar ways in recent years. Sometimes I feel like I’ve had to add a disclaimer that the Chapess is an old skool zine, which will mean something to some people but is essentially just a daft way of saying it’s photocopied, that it’s not for profit, that it’s a work in progress, that you might not like it.
In the time that’s passed since I started making the Chapess my work has continued to reflect the communities I’ve been a part of. In the early days of the zine I was eager to hang out with more women after growing up in a small-town predominantly male punk scene, the zine gave me a way in – and it opened up a world so much richer than I was expecting.
Grub has run on a similar open submission basis, open to everyone, but its queer appeal is what’s made it shine. Zine making has always been about carving out a space that perhaps doesn’t quite exist yet, and Grub has made room for inventive collaborations, storytelling and sharing in the classic DIY tradition.
Gut Flora is now sold out, but several of the original zines are still in print and can be purchased here