Hato Press celebrates the launch of its 50th zine with an exhibition of all its artist editions to date

Hato Press has newly published the 50th edition of its artist zine series: An ongoing collection of publications created in collaboration with creatives from Joey Yu and Daniel Eatock to Nicola Burrow, Greater Goods, and Francis Upritchard, dating back to 2020 when the project began.

To celebrate the milestone the publishing house is holding an exhibition of highlights from its past 49 issues alongside a selection of bespoke objects the press have curated from some of its favourite zines along the way, including a new publication from Wilfrid Wood, a print series by Emma Larsson as well as objects and artworks by the likes of Anna Hodgson and Harry Derby, Maito Parta and Michael Marriott — all up for grabs at the Hato Press shop.

A model for publishing with no creative constraints, the project was initiated with the idea to “bring autonomy” to each artist invited to share their work in print. The series of zines has resulted in a wide array of artworks and styles, making each issue an opportunity for every artist to fit a piece of their practice into the signature Risograph printed A6 format.

“With the zine series we invite artists, photographers, illustrators, writers etc. who would have less experience with a Risograph printing process and invite them to collaborate with the printers, opening a dialogue between printer and artist whereby the production method can give the artist a new dimension to work,” Emete Kirton of Hato Press tell us.

For its 50th copy Hato has collaborated with Japanese photographer Takashi Homma on My Nice T-shirts – an edition that’s been a year in the making. “We knew that the 50th edition would coincide with the Tokyo Art Book fair,” shares Ken Kirton cofounder of Hato Press. “We have always admired Homma’s work so felt like this was the perfect opportunity to work together. We had met with Homma the year before in his studio in Ebisu and felt he would be a perfect collaborator for this marker point.”

A seminal edition to the series, the zine documents the photographers t-shirts and collaborations made over time, “showcasing them through his own photography and images he has found himself tagged in on instagram creating an interesting and playful dialogue between the maker and the audience,” Ken explains. “It’s especially exciting as Hato Press has a lot of lineage with contemporary Japanese culture and artists and Homma-san’s photography has been pivotal in shaping contemporary western perceptions of Japan.”

Zine No.50 My Nice T-shirt in collaboration with Takashi Homma is now available to buy at Hato Store. 'A Celebration of 50 Zines' will be showing from today 06 December to Sunday 08 December at Hato Press’ London Studio.