Paul Chan - Novel Territoy

First published in Sleek magazine

New York art publishing maverick Paul Chan on why an e-book should never be judged by its cover

 Abandoning a promising art career, Hugo- Boss prize-winning former artist Paul chan started the publishing house Badlands in 2010. Run with a cocky “Don’t call us, we’ll call you” attitude, Badlands has been pivotal in popularising the e-book as a legitimate platform for art publishing, publishing everything from his own writing to erotic short stories and relections on Plato. But just what makes this digital format so compelling for today’s independent presses? Speaking from New York, the genial founder gave some explanations.

SLEEK: Why did you start Badlands?

PAUL CHAN: Because I needed a day job. I stopped exhibiting new work in 2008 and I'd had a great run, but I had to get out of the circus and realised I needed to do something else.

 Why publishing?

For a few reasons: I’ve wanted to run a press and publish books for a long time, but I didn’t have enough money. Around the time I started Badlands, e-books were coming into their own. They are basically simple websites. I can make them, and I knew young artists who could make them, so I thought why not publish e-books as a cheap option. That's one reason. The other reason was that New York in the mid-2000s was a golden age of independent arts publishing – there was such energy! Primary Information, Howie Chen’s project Dispatch, Dextra Sinistra, Triple canopy, Seth Price, Wade Guyton. People were doing incredible alternative arts publishing in New York, and I wanted to be part of it.

Why do you think independent publishing became so popular during that period? Do you think artists were looking for alternative ways to communicate with their audiences?

I think publishing tends to enjoy a resurgence of interest when it happens alongside a focus on the public in which questions regarding its right to exist occur. For me, what was liberating about publishing was that I’d get to think about another set of concerns, while using the same set of aesthetic sensibilities I'd honed doing exhibitions.

You have said previously that starting Badlands was also motivated by the desire to regain control over the distribution of your own work.

 When I said that, I was thinking specifically about how one of the models we run Badlands on is based on those used by independent record labels. I love rap and hip-hop and I grew up with bands and rappers who weren’t just musicians but also record company executives. The reason why they started their own record labels was so they could be their own publishers, because they didn’t want to follow a system of production in which their writing was owned by someone else. So one of the reasons why I started Badlands was to see whether or not I could take greater control over books made by me or other artists – because I don’t know of an artist who does not want a book of their work to be published.