Recently published in collaboration with Red de Reproducción y Distribución: Mimeograph Chronicles 謄写版クロニクル by Bruno Ruiz Nava 🇲🇽 👹 🇯🇵 🌀 a result of research on the origin and uses of the mimeograph, or gariban and toshaban as it is known in Japan, during a residency at and with generous support from the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum.

The mimeograph tool is a simple, portable press made of wood and shaped like a briefcase, containing inside a mesh frame and a roller. Easy to transport and ideal for small organizations—schools, offices, or political groups—it enables mobility and autonomy in printing, allowing its users to produce materials and grassroots communication quickly. 📄 🧰 ♻️ Originally introduced at the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago by Thomas Edison, whose Japanese counterpart Shinjiro Horii's concurrent contribution’s were overlooked as an essential part of the process, having developed within the context of Japanese paper making the stencil paper needed for the use of the machine.

Through a visit to the Daito Tosha-Technical Archive Museum in Gifu Prefecture, a museum which exhibits an extensive collection and history of and history of mimeograph printing, the pamphlet recounts the history of gariban in Japan as an industrial, artistic, and pedagogical tool. In the latter half of the book, and referencing the writing of KuroDalaiJee, the work of 1960s Japanese underground artist Asai Masuo is featured, a pioneer of hippie communes and what’s known as the mini-komi zine community—“a pre-digital social network.” 🪨 🖨️ Asai’s work with coal mine labor movements and his pedagogical approach to children’s art, such as via the publication series Kuroi kaku (Black Core, 1962), is highlighted.

We fight our own fight.
Rejecting all interference from adults
We stand on autonomous ground
We continue fighting
To fulfill our promise of destruction and creation
Rooted in the children’s own fundamental desire

– “Itan no kodomo tachi no sengen” (Manifesto of the Heresy Children) by Asai Masuo, 1963