I’ve been enjoying an exploration of ideas for handmade artists books. I was started off down this rabbit hole by a ‘how-to’ video that I saw on the Peg and Awl website.
Whether stitched or stapled this kind of single signature book is the foundation of Zines, Pamphlets and Chapbooks. I have yet to find a good explanation or description that really differentiates between the three. My interpretation is that it’s the production value that really sets the three apart but even then that’s not cut and dried.
I had been thinking of zines as being a bit rough and ready, a home made DIY magazine. I had come across zines before in the context of music – fans diy efforts to put together a magazine that supports their local music scene or their favorite band.
Photo book publishers such as Another Place Press and Kozu Books are producing zines, using the term zine to separate these smaller books from their other books. For Kozu books this means perfect or pur binding rather than thread sewn. While the zines (Field Notes) from Another Place Press are folded and staple bound. Take a look below:
I definitely think that a short body of work could be printed and finished by hand in a similar way to these more ‘commercial‘ zines are. Looking forward to giving this a go in the next couple of weeks.
More about Chapbooks soon!
Andrew Nixon's Photo Blog 
Ha. Your wanderings seem to be in a similar direction to mine! I was looking at zines maybe a year ago and bought a couple of the field notes ones, as well as a couple of others that were poetry. I wanted to see how they were made, as I’m partway through designing a small photo book and went searching for ideas. I am looking forward to learning more about where your investigations lead you!
I enjoyed finding ZooPark Publishing (https://www.instagram.com/zooparkpublishing/) on instagram. If you look through their feed you’ll find some interesting videos of the process that they follow for producing small photobooks e.g. https://www.instagram.com/p/CKy3kd0I-HR/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link and https://www.instagram.com/p/CLIAYDJImjQ/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
and this post from Paul Politis https://www.paulpolitis.com/musings/handmade-photo-book-inkjet-prints-photo-chapbooks/ was also very informative.