Exhibition: Print! Tearing It Up

Independent British magazines changing the world.

Explore the history and impact of the British independent magazine scene today in Print! Tearing It Up. This exhibition charts the evolution of polemic and progressive print publications and celebrates the current diverse industry of innovative independent magazines.

Beginning with BLAST, the Vorticist journal produced in June 1914, the exhibition traverses through the pacifist Peace News of 1930s, the biting satire of Private Eye (first published in the 1960s and still Britain’s best-selling current affairs magazine), the seminal feminist magazine founded in the 1970s Spare Rib, the cult-pop phenomenon of The Face in the 1980s and 90s and the D.I.Y zines created by teenage feminist collectives into the new millennium.

Many of the magazines address the unspoken issues of the day, including diversity, gender, sexuality and media manipulation.

Burying the belief that print is dead, the number of niche magazines is booming in Britain with the likes of gal-dem and Mushpit launching in the past decade. Print! Tearing It Up explores the contemporary market of magazines, looking at the latest line of publishing pioneers, examining demand for print in a digital era and envisaging the future of these independent titles.