Nexus Press

• Name — Nexus Press • Industry — Artist book publishing • Founder — Michael Goodman • Hq Location City — Atlanta, Georgia • Hq Location Country — United States • Key People — Joe Anne Paschall

Nexus Press was started by a group of photographers calling themselves the Nexus Art Collective who ran a cooperative gallery in a storefront on Virginia Avenue which has since become the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center (ACAC). In 1976, the group launched a publication arm which became Nexus Press. Michael Goodman became the founding director of the press in 1977, remaining there until 1992, and also produced How to Make an Artist's Book (Nexus Press, 1980), a "droll" and "wry" work about the making of artists' books. Joe Anne Paschall joined the press in 1986 and became director in 1994. 1977 was the year the Nexus Collective received three simultaneous grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Georgia Council for the Arts, and the City of Atlanta's Bureau of Cultural Affairs. These grants allowed them to move to an empty public school building on Forrest Avenue, where there was space for printing equipment. Their first press was a "Hamada Star." When this press wore out in 1986, the press used donation money and funds raised through an auction to purchase a Heidelberg press. A major turning point in the press' success was their 1980 publication of a monograph of P. H. Polk. The publication and its exhibition received national attention, including coverage in LIFE. It established Nexus' reputation as a force in photographic publishing. Another significant point was Nexus' program developed as part of the 1996 Cultural Olympiad, for which an artists from each of the areas represented by the Olympic rings produced a book. This produced collaborations with Japanese artist Shinro Ohtake, Ivorian artist Frédéric Bruly Bouabré, Spanish artist Darya von Berner, Brazilian artist Fernando Lopes, and Canadian artist Shelagh Keeley. The press was incredibly successful, producing beautiful and experimental works, including into 2001 when they were represented at the Frankfurt Book Fair and made their annual $40,000 quota in six months. However, in 2003, ACAC shut down the press in a controversial and abrupt decision.

The following is established of the heading itself. Institutional cataloguing adds that nexus Press is recorded from 1977.

Nexus Press pushed creative boundaries, producing books, posters, and flyers in traditional formats as well as accordions, flip books, maps, pop-up books, scrolls, cootie catchers, and piano rolls. Their subjectmatter often touched on topics such as race, gender, sexuality, and American history. Artists published by Nexus include Bill Burke, P. H. Polk, Ray Metzker, Robert Cumming, Joan Lyons, Ruth Laxson, Beverly Buchanan, Pat Steir, Ellen Banks, and Larry Walker.