Collection: Books & Zines

Books and zines are where the best ideas show up first — raw, personal, and beautifully specific. This collection is our shelf of small worlds: artist books, photo books, illustration-led reads, design references, and self-published zines that feel like finding a secret room inside a bookstore you didn’t know existed. Some are quick hits you’ll finish in one sitting. Others are the kind you keep on your desk and open at random, just to reset your brain.

We curate these the same way we curate everything at We Are 1976: for craft, voice, and the feeling that someone made this on purpose. Expect independent publishing, small press releases, limited-run editions, and “printed matter” you won’t see everywhere — the stuff that’s often made in small batches, disappears fast, and ends up becoming the thing people ask about later. If you’re building a creative library, hunting for a gift that feels thoughtful (not generic), or collecting niche art and design ephemera, this is your lane.

Inside you’ll find a mix of art books, design books, photography books, illustration books, graphic collections, and zines — from playful, colorful work to quiet, minimal projects with obsessive attention to paper and layout. Many of these are created by artists and studios we already love, and some are discoveries we can’t wait to put in your hands. Think of this section as part bookstore, part gallery wall, part studio reference shelf.

Zines, especially, have their own energy: DIY, experimental, sometimes funny, sometimes tender — always direct. They’re perfect for quick inspiration, creative research, and collecting voices that don’t always make it into mainstream publishing. Books lean a little more permanent: the deep dives, the portfolios, the “I can’t believe this exists” documents of an artist’s world. Either way, these are pieces you can live with — stack, display, dog-ear, lend out (or selfishly keep).