This lecture explores the materiality of feminist and lesbian publications, their unconventional bindings, and their lives in Belgian archives.
Preparing for a visit to an archive is often based on very little visual information, mostly coming from text-based web interfaces, indicating themes or a selection of evocative titles.
Most of the publications we encountered, which we could now call °zines° or °micro editions° are relatively accessible—production, distribution, and price-wise. They do not take up much space in a library. In fact, they sometimes get lost. With their thin, often folded spines, they are less visible, less orderly, and more fragile than rows of books with larger spines. As a result, they are usually placed in archives, more easily stored in boxes—thus missing having a bookshelf or other display adapted to them.We invite you to come with us into the soft, limp, messy bindings of feminist and lesbian publications and their lives in local Belgian archives. This inventory of forms shows inventive ways to transform folds and staples into sublime objects that convey powerful and subversive ideas. It is a source of inspiration—a genealogy creating a link between past and present practices.
Event language: English with close-captions.
Lissa Choukrane (she/her) is an independent researcher and artist. Writing and the question of archives are central to her practice. Her work focuses on the intersecting histories of womxn and the book trade. After researching bookbinders womxn, she is now exploring publishing practices in the Parisian militant context, as well as the history of feminist/lesbian spaces in Brussels, Belgium, and their printed production. Lissa studied at ENSAV La Cambre in Brussels, Belgium, where since 2023 she has been teaching a class on the politics of archives, with a particular focus on gender issues.
Loraine Furter is a graphic designer and researcher based in Brussels since 2007, specializing in editorial design, hybrid publishing, and inter- sectional xfeminism. Loraine is currently a PhD student in Sint Lucas, Antwerp, where she deepens her self-initiated research project Speaking Volumes—art, activism and feminist publishing. She is also part of the cyberfeminist collective Just For the Record, and since 2017, co-organizes the graphic design festival Fig. in Liège.
REGISTER HEREBy registering for this lecture series, you not only enter a transnational community centered around design politics, but you also support the work of commissioning, editing, and publishing original counter-narratives, and help to finance our free online learning program.
The lecture series is accessible through a sliding-scale price structure:
- Solidarity: CHF 290
- Standard: CHF 150
- Student: CHF 70
- Reduced Student: CHF 35
For students with limited finances—particularly those self-identifying as marginalized, BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, chronically ill, or disabled—we offer the Reduced Student price. We trust your honesty and do not require proof of self-identification for enrollment.
For institutions keen on facilitating their students’ and staff’s participation (and other bigger groups), we also provide discounted passes. Please contact learning@futuress.org along with the number of participating students and staff, and we would be happy to tailor an offer to your specific needs.
This event is part of the Pressing Issues: Printing Futures, Publishing Resistance paid online series of lectures, tutorials, and roundtable conversations discussing the politics of translating, archiving, and publishing.
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Jan 8, 2026 | 6 pm CET | Lecture
Materiality of ♀ and ♀♀ Publications in Belgian Archives: An Ode to Messy Bindings
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and Loraine Furter (she/her), designer & researcher
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