OVERVIEW AND SPECIFICATIONS: Axis Mundo: Queer Networks in Chicano L.A. published by ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives at the USC Libraries and DelMonico Books/Prestel. Target audience: visual arts, academic scholarship, LGBTQ histories, Chicana/o art and social history, and histories of performance art, mail art, conceptual art, and punk music. Distribution: Prestel. Cost: $35 USD per unit. Retail: $60 USD (£45 U.K.).

BRIEF: This catalogue accompanies the exhibition Axis Mundo: Queer Networks in Chicano L.A., organized by ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives at the USC Libraries in collaboration with The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Presented in Los Angeles in fall 2017, the exhibition was organized as a part of Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA, a wide-reaching initiative of the Getty on Latino and Latin American art. Between 2018 and 2020 Axis Mundo will travel to multiple venues in the U.S.; the first venue is the Hunter College Art Galleries in New York in summer 2018. In addition to distribution by Prestel the catalogue for Axis Mundo will be available at all future exhibition venues. The catalogue presents the powerful work of queer Chicana/o artists working in Los Angeles between the late 1960s and early 1990s. The artists profiled in this compendium represent a broad cross section of L.A.'s art scene. With more than 500 illustrations and 10 essays, this volume presents histories of artistic experimentation and reveals networks of collaboration and exchange that resulted in some of the most intriguing art of late 20th-century America. From mail art to the rise of Chicana/o, gay, and feminist print media; the formation of alternative spaces to punk music and performance; fashion culture to the AIDS crisis—the artists and works featured here comprise a boundary-pushing network of voices and talents.

The catalogue’s objective was to present a lavishly illustrated compendium of artworks, archival documents, fashion, and ephemera by the included artists. In many cases this catalogue reproduces works of art by the included artists for the first time, many of which were photographed specifically for this publication, providing an invaluable resource for future generations. Including 10 essays and over 50 individual artist biographical entries, the catalogue is also a robust academic resource with numerous scholarly voices providing insight into the works and artists. The project’s target audiences are both museum visitors interested in the visual arts and scholarly researchers and professionals looking to better study and/or teach the work of these artists.

DESIGN DIRECTION: An important objective of the design was the balance the large amount of text with a vast archive of illustrations. A variety grids were set up throughout the publication to build on vernaculars of collections, series, and performance oriented works. The book was set up into four sections that loosely organized by the structures set up in the installation itself: “Role Models,” “Chicano Chic,” “Mystical Camp,” “LA/LA/LACE,” “Mail Art,” “Punk Meets Art,” and “AIDS Activism(s).” Each color of the section title page is picked up from a palette of brightly colored copy paper—such that might have been used to generate punk flyers, mail art, or zines from the 1980s and 1990s.

The publication is bookended by front and back matter printed on bright yellow, super thin paper referencing a directory volume such as The Yellow Pages from decades past—a nod to the vast networks of artists and spaces here in Los Angeles at that time. The opening sequence features a visual overview of the publication looking at the artists and topics surveyed within. Prompted by the project’s target audiences (museum visitors, books collectors, and scholars alike) the vertical trim size and flexi-cover makes for a book that can both be looked at and comfortably read!

INSIGHTS: The threading theme of the publication as described in the subtitle, Queer Networks in Chicano L.A. looks at how artists, spaces, and publications during this era overlapped. This is illustrated in the Artist Biographies section for the book where names that are repeated more than thrice (artists, galleries, schools, bars, neighborhoods, etc.) are highlighted in the same fluorescent PMS used throughout the publication—alluding to a visual web of networks across the spreads.