Future Fantasteek! #23: You Love Libraries // When All the Books Are Gone

Onscreen version formatted so both zines are the right way up to view 

Jac Batey (images) & Jessy Randall (text)
Brighton, UK / Colorado Springs, USA (2025)
Edition of 100
297mm x 210mm, 32 x pages
Tête-bêche format: two zines with one rotated 180 degrees, meeting in the middle. Two front covers.
Digital colour printing on 150 gsm recycled silk paper,
Includes a bookmark

This special library-themed issue of Future Fantasteek! (ISSN 2399-3022) It is a gift to libraries in gratitude for all that libraries and library staff do for communities, for literacy, and for intellectual freedom. It contains two 16-line poems about books and libraries by Jessy Randall, illustrated by Jac Batey using withdrawn library books, vintage stationery, tippex, index cards, pens and collages. The Tête-bêche format means both zines are bound together with one rotated 180 degrees, making for two front covers. 

When All The Books Are Gone

Selected spreads

You Love Libraries

Selected spreads

The process involved agreeing on the poems to include, then taking each 16-line poem in turn and working on everything 'all at once'. The idea was to repurpose old library book covers and stationery, but I needed to be able to see the whole sequence of the poem so I could consider the visual pace and flow. Work-in-progress images

Message from the authors
The authors thank the University of Portsmouth, UK, Research & Innovation Fund, for supporting the printing and distribution of this publication. We love libraries – for real, not just if someone asks.
Sincerely yours, Jac Batey (University of Portsmouth, UK) / Jessy Randall (Colorado College, USA)

Jessy Randall is a librarian at Colorado College in the United States.
Her latest book is ‘The Path of Most Resistance: Poems on Women in Science’ (Gold SF, 2025).
Personal Website: www.bit.ly/JessyRandall