Reflection on the Zines and Artists’ Books of Nikki Thompson

Unfolding Political History by Mark Brown, Professor of Political Science, CSUS

With her artists’ books and zines, Nikki Thompson transforms political history and social criticism into a three-dimensional experience for eyes and hands. The viewer would like to pick them up, open and explore them -- not possible with an online exhibit, of course, but perhaps you can imagine it. They feature vibrant colors, ingenious folds, and engaging text and graphics. They invite you to ponder and reflect, to turn things over in both your mind and your hands. With the haunting zine Fire! No Exit, Thompson juxtaposes two well-known and horrific building fires, each of which killed dozens of people, a century apart. The victims in each case had lived on the edges of society, struggling to make their way in the face of elite indifference and unjust social conditions. The Pill versus the Pocket Rocket offers a concise and compelling lesson on the political economy of sex. Many politicians and insurance companies apparently care less about the life chances of women than the sexual potency of men. Riots Become Protest invokes a legendary educator and activist, Howard Zinn, to tell us about the dedicated teachers who work extra hours to go beyond the whitewashed history still taught in many schools. The zine’s timeline packs more social justice history onto a single page than you will find in many high school history textbooks. To Vote As We Work asks us to remember the names and faces of twelve women from long ago, many of them union activists, who fought for social justice and the right to vote. Their portraits are linked by slender threads, like the memories that this remarkable artists’ book creates, connecting us to these courageous women. Each of these works, in both form and content, calls us to work for a more just and democratic world. As Nikki said to me about the zines, “I like the way you can give them out at a protest.”