Special Collections is punctum books’s initiative to preserve, republish, and make openly accessible the back catalogs of historically significant independent presses founded and run by structurally marginalized individuals and communities. Many of these presses have shaped alternative intellectual, artistic, and political traditions, yet their books are often out of print, difficult to discover, or accessible only through limited institutional channels. Through carefully curated print and Diamond Open Access editions, Special Collections reopens these vital bodies of work for global readership, teaching, and scholarship.
Following the example of Reveal Digital, who have developed open access periodical collections from underrepresented 20th-century voices of dissent and building on punctum’s long-standing commitment to recuperation, bibliodiversity, and community-led open access, this initiative establishes (an)archival partnerships with the founders and caretakers of dormant or retired presses whose editorial visions align with punctum’s social and political commitments.
Special Collections is currently partnering with Les Figues Press, a Los Angeles–based feminist and queer press whose publications are currently being reissued as both print and open access editions via the Les Figues imprint, and the artist Ken Friedman, with whom we are reissuing a series of historically significant Fluxus publications, including works published by Something Else Press, via the Fluxus & Co. imprint.
Together with libraries, Special Collections offers a sustainable model for stewarding small-press histories as shared cultural infrastructure, ensuring their continued availability for research, teaching, and collective knowledge-making.
US and Canadian university libraries are invited to support the Special Collections initiative via Lyrasis.