In this instalment of What Is Critical Publishing?, writer, editor, and magazine collector Eric Otieno Sumba challenges the assumption that art books—and the ideas they carry—travel by themselves. Pointing to the coloniality of distributional networks and global logistics—and its deniability—he proposes a rethinking of distribution: instead of invisibilizing its processes, he argues, we should understand it as a labour of social and political determination and, as such, a central part of artistic and research production. 

According to Sezgin Boynik, bibliography – the historical materialist study of printed matter – is an inherently democratic and egalitarian way of presenting knowledge. Against contemporary art’s neoliberal notion of subjectivity understood as individualization, Boynik argues in this essay that the orthodox field of bibliography offers us powerful tools to connect different political struggles and collectivize knowledge – through bibliographies with attitude.

What role can publishing play in organizing critique today? This series looks at historical and contemporary practices that approach publishing as an infrastructure for political organization, collective knowledge production, and the formation of counter-publics.