Rainbow Bookstore Cooperative is pleased to announce the First Annual Dane County Print Explosion. The Dane County Print Explosion is a one-day show of printed matter, including posters, stickers, zines, journals, and books. The roster of exhibitors is drawn from the world of experimental publishers, visual artists, artisanal bookmakers and printers, radical imprints, grassroots zine authors, and activist designers. The exhibitors hail from across Wisconsin and from around the United States. They include an array of subversively creative print media artists and publishers, including names such as Xexoxial, Anne Elizabeth Moore/Ladydrawers, The Baffler, WI Books to Prisoners, PM Press, Fresh Hot Press of the UW Printmakers, Polka Press, Sue Bietila, and many more who do their thing through print media.


The idea for the event originated when Rainbow was asked by the organizers of the Wisconsin Book Festival to coordinate the Madison Zine Fest, an annual celebration of zines and DIY culture, as a complement to the Wisconsin Book Festival. Rainbow’s staff collective and board of directors decided to expand the purview of this event to include all forms of print culture and to rename it the Dane County Print Explosion.

The daytime exhibition will be followed by a social gathering in the ballroom of the Nottingham Co-operative, the first annual Dane County Printers Ball, featuring the quirky sounds of Madison band Medusa’s Beard.