Future Fantasteek! No.23 is now on show in Tutt Library at Colorado College, USA

 
Future Fantasteek! No.23 is now on show in Tutt Library at Colorado College, USA
July > September 2025

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 It contains two 16-line poems about books and libraries by Jessy Randall, illustrated by Jac Batey using withdrawn library books, vintage stationery, tippex, index cards, pens and collages.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

Future Fantasteek! No.22 'Paper Cuts'

Future Fantasteek! No.22 Paper Cuts is a change from the usual A5 format, broadsheet newspaper size containing a series of drawings/collages that are about how we use words and expressions to bully each other.

12 pages colour printed on newsprint
500mm x 350mm (broadsheet format)
Edition of 100, numbered, signed and embossed
July 2023, Brighton, UK

The 'Paper Cuts' artwork explores the impact of language on mental health. Created through a combination of collage and drawing techniques, they bring attention to the passive/aggressive phrases and words that are often used to bully and blame individuals. The works feature a clash of cartoon-like imagery and hand-drawn text, highlighting phrases such as “being resilient” and “gentle reminder” that can be used in a harmful manner. Similarly, as technology rapidly evolves, so too does the absurdity of the language we use to describe it. This language is parodied to highlight how it can make us as humans feel anxious, out-of-date, or redundant. The series encourages open conversations about mental health and challenges the notion that individuals can be ‘fixed’, which distracts us from attempting to create a more equal and supportive society. It’s a call to action to rethink the way we communicate and to understand the power of words.

The series of eight collaged/drawings are part of the following touring exhibition in libraries in
London, UK 2023-2025. Supported by Creative People & Places, Arts Council England and the University of Portsmouth.

Future Fantasteek! in Motion

Future Fantasteek! in Motion funded by Arts Council England is progressing rapidly.

You can preview elements here:
Future Fantasteek! in Motion Website

Future Fanasteek! No.22 'Doom Scroll' is nearly completed. It'll be ready to send out in March 2022 NOW with added AR. This has been the most amazing project that's given me time to learn so many new skills, I can't wait to share it with everyone.

Arts Council England award

Really pleased to be able to now share that I've been awarded a Developing Your Creative Practice grant from the Arts Council England.

This is for a project called Future Fanasteek! in Motion running between Aug 2021 and Feb 2022 and it will have its own website to share the work in progress and final outcomes.

For more click on the menu above or follow this link:

https://bateyjackie.wixsite.com/ffinmotion

I want to explore the space between animation and the still-image on the printed zine, to develop aspects of motion, digitally and through AR. I propose digital interventions in sound, animation & sequence to make the unfolding of pages (real & virtual) a multi-layered experience. This grant provides dedicated time to learn to record, edit and place sound/image in harmony so that I can enhance the experience when viewing zines online and in-print using AR. I see this as mixing elements in unexpected ways that will be an exciting step-change in my practice.

'Decay' exhibition for The Rise Collective in Hanoi, Vietnam - April 2021

I'm really pleased that I have a limited edition print on shown in an exhibition in Hanoi, Vietnam curated by The Rise Collective. The curator @livyhasnolife has set the theme as 'Decay' and over 50 artists from around the world are showing work.

The show will be on 3rd-12th April 2021 at @archhanoi, in aid of @bluedragonchildren.

"The exhibition has the aim to raise money for @bluedragonchildren. ✨🐉✨ Blue Dragon offers children and families in crisis throughout Vietnam the chance to change their situations. Their services include rescue and crisis care for young people in immediate danger. They provide shelter, legal advocacy as well as long term support in returning to school and/or training. BD have rescued 1000 victims of human trafficking and continue to do amazing work."    From the organiser's Instagram Page

This is my print, it's a two colour lino print about food waste.

For more see: Instagram RISE COLLECTIVE >

Here are some more images of the private view April 3rd 2021
(Photos by Livy Nelson)

Drawings from Marshland - FFNo.20 exhibited in Bournemouth.

Two double-page spreads from Marshland - Future fanatsteek! No.20 will be joining this exhibition in Bournemouth in July. The exhibition will explore graphic medicine and visualisations of anxiety and mental health.



Click on this link for more details....https://www.bournemouth.ac.uk/events/vasto-exhibition

FF no.19 off to two zine festivals!

Future Fantasteek! No.19 Death By Email is off to two Zine Festivals in the autumn.

ZineFestPt taking place in Porto in Portugal 15th October 2018

And... It's also off to the CanZine Festival as part of the 'International Zines' exhibit hosted by Broken Pencil - This is a huge expo for all things zine-related. With events in four major Canadian cities. Canzine Toronto will be taking place on Saturday September 22, 1pm-7pm, Art Gallery of Ontario (317 Dundas St. West).

Future Fantasteek! No.18

Softback zine laser printed in colour on ivory paper. 

A5 size with 20 printed pages, saddle-stitched.

Day-Glo cover, laser-printed in colour.

Brighton, February 2017, edition size of 30.

To read the whole thing scroll below here:

Is it even worth reading the news? Why aren't alternative facts lies?
who knows, this zine won't help you one little bit.
Featuring the Blue Bird of Happiness and Autocorrect.

Download to your on Kindle or e-reader (whatever they are).


Link to Future Fantasteek! ebook on Amazon

Great to see all the issues of Future Fantasteek! on display in the UWE Library this month.
Photo courtesy of Sarah Bodman, display by Steve Norton.

Future Fantasteek! No.18 is off to France for Zinefest No.4
5-9 July in Doves a Bordeaux

FF no.16 will be appearing at the first Beirut Zine Festival in June

Future Fantasteek! will be making an appearance at the first Beirut Zine Festival, which will be on the 18th June at 18:00 in UTC+03. Artscape Beirut in Beirut, Lebanon.
After the festival Future Fantasteek!  will join the Artscape zine collection - super.

For more details, see the Artscape Poster and link below:
https://www.facebook.com/BeirutZines

The British Library are going to archive Future Fantasteek!

Great news! The British Library are going to archive my Future Fantasteek! for the future
...how fantasteek.

The British Library would like to archive the following website:

http://www.futurefantasteek.blogspot.co.uk/

The British Library would like to archive your website in the UK Web Archive. The UK Web Archive was established in 2004 to capture and archive websites from the UK domain, responding to the challenge of a ‘digital black hole’ in the nation’s memory. It contains specially selected websites that represent different aspects of online life in the UK. We work closely with leading UK institutions to collect and permanently preserve the UK web, and our archive can be seen at http://www.webarchive.org.uk/

Future Fantasteek! on show in Russia 1st August - 30th September 2014

The RUKSSIAN Artists’ Books exhibition is about to move to a new location.
The Pavel Kuznetsov Museum, Saratov, Russia.
1st August - 30th September 2014

I am showing Future Fantasteek! Nos. 12, 14 and 15

Curators: Sarah Bodman, Mikhail Pogarsky, Vasily Vlasov, Viktor Lukin. Artists’ books speak the international language of art. These books can be understood in almost any corner of the world. Artists, who work in the genre of the artist’s book professionally form a large international community. However, the artist’s book like any other artform has its own regional and national peculiarities.

Apart from the language in which the text is presented, there are various historical roots from which the artist’s book has emerged and on which the contemporary tree of this artform grows. In every country and in every city young artists learn many things from prominent artists and as such, new formal and informal schools of thought around the artist’s book are formed.

The international project "RUKSSIAN Artists' Books' aims to demonstrate the unique and common features of the artist's book, presenting works by artists from the UK and Russia united by national artistic traditions.

British artists: Alice Potter, Andy Parsons & Glenn Holman, Angie Butler, Anwyl Cooper-Willis, Barrie Tullett, Caseroom Press/Scottish Poetry Library, Charlotte Hall, Christopher Robinson, Craig Atkinson, Duncan Bullen & Jamie Crofts, Elizabeth Willow & David Armes, Guy Begbie, Hazel Grainger, Helen Douglas & Thomas Evans, Iain Biggs & Josh Biggs, Jackie Batey, Jeremy Dixon, Joan Ainley, John Bently, John McDowall, J P Willis, Julie Johnstone, Les Bicknell, Liz Jackson, Nancy Campbell, Otto, Pauline Lamont-Fisher, Philippa Wood & Tamar MacLellan, Sarah Bodman, seekers of lice, Simon Goode, Simon Le Ruez, Sophie Loss, Stephen Fowler, Susan Johanknecht, Theresa Easton, Tom Sowden.

Russian artists: Nikita Alekseev, Tatiana Antoshina, Vasily Vlasov, Sergei Vorobyov, Viktor Goppe, Emil Guzairov, Aleksander Dzhikiya, Mikhail Dronov, Igor Zadera, Mikhail Karasik, Valery Korchagin, Nikolai Krastchin, Viktor Lukin, Kira Matissen, Valery Orlov, Peter Perevezentsev, Mikhail Pogarsky, Sergei Romashko, Aleksander Savelyev, Dmitry Saenko, Aleksander Svirsky, Vera Khlebnikova, Evelina Schatz, Sergei Shutov, Gunel Yuran, Sergei Yakunin.

Pavel Kuznetsov Museum, Radischev str., 39, Saratov 410000, Russia

http://www.russianmuseums.info/M1381
---   ---   ---   ---   ---   ---

The information at the start of the Exhibition in 13th March 2014.

I am delighted to have been invited to exhibit three issues of Future Fantasteek! Nos. 12, 14 and 15 as part of the following international exhibition.

RU^KSSIAN Artist’s Book

Artist’s Book in the UK and Russia

International Project

(Following text from Sarah Bodman - curator).

Organisers: 
State Historical, Architectural, Art and Landscape Museum-Reserve «Tsaritsyno», Moscow
International Association «Kniga Khudozhnika», Moscow

Book Arts at the Centre for Fine Print Research, UWE Bristol, UK.

Curators: Sarah Bodman, Mikhail Pogarsky, Vasily Vlasov, Viktor Lukin, 

Place: Tsaritsyno State Historical, Architectural, Art and Landscape Museum-Reserve, Moscow

Date: 13th March – 18th May 2014

Concept: Artists’ books speak the international language of art. These books can be understood in almost any corner of the world. All artists, who work in the genre of the artist’s book professionally form a large international community. However, the artist’s book like any other artform has its own regional and national peculiarities. Apart from the language in which the text is presented, there are various historical roots from which the artist's book has emerged and on which the contemporary tree of this artform grows. In every country and in every city young artists learn many things from prominent artists and as such, new formal and informal schools of thought around the artist’s book are formed.

The international Project “RU^KSSIAN Artists’ Books” aims to demonstrate the unique and common features of the artist's book, presenting works by artists from the UK and Russia united by national artistic traditions.


British artists: Angie Butler, Anwyl Cooper-Willis, Barrie Tullett, Charlotte Hall, Christopher Robinson, Craig Atkinson, Elizabeth Willow & David Armes, Guy Begbie, Hazel Grainger, Helen Douglas & Thomas Evans, Jackie Batey, Jeremy Dixon, John Bently, John McDowall, Julie Johnstone, Les Bicknell, Nancy Campbell, Otto, Pauline Lamont-Fisher, Philippa Wood & Tamar MacLellan, Sarah Bodman, seekers of lice, Simon Goode, Simon Le Ruez, Sophie Loss, Stephen Fowler, Susan Johanknecht, Theresa Easton, Tom Sowden.

Russian artists: Nikita Alekseev, Tatiana Antoshina, Vasily Vlasov, Sergei Vorobyov, Viktor Goppe, Emil Guzairov, Aleksander Dzhikiya, Mikhail Dronov, Igor Zadera, Mikhail Karasik, Valery Korchagin, Nikolai Krastchin, Viktor Lukin, Kira Matissen, Valery Orlov, Peter Perevezentsev, Mikhail Pogarsky, Sergei Romashko, Aleksander Savelyev, Dmitry Saenko, Aleksander Svirsky, Vera Khlebnikova, Evelina Schatz, Sergei Shutov, Gunel Yuran, Sergei Yakunin.

Download the Exhibition Catalogue here...
http://www.pogarsky.ru/cgi-bin/foremanel.pl?mod=books&a=books&id=291

Future Fantasteek! Mini-Tour Catalogue now available free for ipad.

Future Fantasteek! Mini-Tour Catalogue now available free for ipad.

And to read on Issuu.
 

Future Fantasteek! No.13 and No.14 are being shown as part of Project 2013.

Future Fantasteek! issues No.13 and No.14 are being shown as part of Project 2013.

http://www.caferoyalbooks.com/index.php/project/international-communication-project/

"You are invited to the preview of the 2013 Project.
Books, photographs, and drawings from over 20 countries sharing common themes of communication and dissemination will be displayed at Hanover Project - the University of Central Lancashire. To mark the event I am publishing a series of books: Words, Drawings, Photographs, and Publications. These titles will be launched at the preview event. Words is a collection of essays by leading practitioners and researchers - Sarah Bodman, Jörg Colberg and Lawrence Zeegen. The preview will be preceded by a talk, arranged by Dr Mat Gregory. from Turner Prize winning artist, Martin Creed.

Tuesday April 16th.
Talk: 3.00pm
Foster Building, Lecture Theatre 3, off Kendal Street, University of Central Lancashire, Preston. Spaces are limited and will be available on a first come first served basis.
Preview: 4.30pm - 7.00pm

Install - open for public viewing but partial exhibition 11.04.13 - 08.05.13
Full exhibition 16.04.13 - 03.05.13 10.00am - 5.00pm Monday - Friday

Hanover Project, Hanover Building, off Bhailok Street, University of Central Lancashire, Preston. Refreshments will be available. More details about the 2013 Project, and other Café Royal Projects can be seen here. Both events are funded by the Contemporary Arts Development Group."

Text from Cafe Royal Website.

Gold Room Portsmouth Zine Fair

The Gold Room in Portsmouth are holding their first zine fair on Sat 31st March.
There will be zine swaps, talks and an exhibition. On show are a selection of art-zines loaned from the University of Portsmouth's Zineopolis collection. Future Fantasteek! No.13 is included in this show.