Sandwiched in a storefront on Central Avenue, one might easily miss the smallish new brick-and-mortar space that Gonzalo Guerrero and Tara Ridgedell recently opened under the guise of the “Secret Riso Club,” a colorful little business the pair have been running since 2017. By now, they’ve switched between different locations some four times, starting out from a 450 square foot studio on nearby Melrose Street.
They’ve landed, most recently, on a site they found on craigslist that once belonged to a longtime bike shop, which Ridgedell insists is “still in business.” They’ve taken their place with a bookstore collecting some 400 titles, she says, from “art books that resonate” to “some theoretical texts that have greatly informed our work.” The books have titles like: “Gender Fail, a Decade of Queer and Trans Liberatory Writings,” and “Caps Lock: How Capitalism Took Hold of Graphic Design and How to Escape From it.”
“We always knew we wanted to one day have a larger space…and have a bookstore,” says Ridgedell, a transplant from Atlanta who appears vaguely concerned about being seen as a gentrifier here. “We love the strong Puerto Rican, Dominican, and Ecuadorian community presence. We work to be part of the community and work with those already here rather than replacing and displacing.”
Ridgedell did not elaborate on what that really meant, though she says the group has printed fliers for Comunidad Primero, a local Spanish-language mutual aid group that started last year.
“As far as we know, we’re the only place in New York City where the publishing, printing and production happens under the same roof as the bookstore,” she says.
She says the outfit’s income comes from “a mix of client work, the bookstore and art book fairs, and [running] workshops.” Workshops her company sells range from group “Intro To Riso” classes, which go for $150 a head, to more advanced, one-on-one screenprinting classes that run for at least $400. (“Limited community tickets available at a discounted rate,” her website says, if you can make a compelling pitch via email.)
Taking its name after risograph printing — commonly referred to as “riso” — it’s a somewhat underground niche printing style form that dates to late 70’s Japan and is still clearly going strong in 2024. The “riso” itself is a large and bulky printer that prints one color at a time, with the name “Riso-Sha” coined by inventor Noboru Hayamam, and which translates to “ideal.” While implicitly limited in the number of colors that can be printed, the neon-like ink can feel like eye-candy, the style is perfect for comics, zines and posters, which lovingly adorn the walls of their store.
“Riso is a process of letting go and experimenting, you will never have perfect prints, but it will be unique and beautiful,” claims Ridgedell.
The business also wants to use the space to run events with likeminded publishers, like a recent pop-up they did last month with Can Can Press, a small publisher based in Mexico City, a somewhat international collaboration. To attract a crowd, they threw up a colorful pinata and hired, as DJs, Karina Pino and Arlander Taylor VI, the latter also the designer of a book of illustrations titled Lagniappe which Riso publishes and sells for a sticker price of $50. (“The book’s visuals draw from diverse influences, including the Mayan creation story Popol Vuh, the Afro-Cuban divination system Diloggun, and the symbolism of the sun as a source of vitality.”) Drinks at the popup were cheaper; cans of fashionable probiotic soda or local craft beer were going for $3-5. If Secret Riso Club wanted their printshop-cum-bookstore to remain as much of a secret as their name insinuates, then they should not throw parties this good.
“You just never know how the colors will interact from one print to the next,” someone named Merijn, an intern from the Netherlands, told me at the show.
“We’ve known Jackie and Gabino for years through art book fairs and have had the chance to visit with them when we do fairs in Mexico City,” says Ridgedell, about their relationship with Can Can Press, which publishes titles like Uno imprime para encontrar camaradas, an art book about riso printing whose title translates to “One Prints to Find Comrades,” and which they also sell for about $50. Per Ridgedell, the two publishers are trying to create something called the “International Risograph Coalition,” which currently consists of the two of them.
Ridgedell met Gonzalo met in 2015, “through Silent Barn,” she says, in reference to the DIY spot that started in Ridgewood that moved to Bushwick Avenue, and then dramatically shuttering in 2018, citing exorbitant monthly rents. Ridgedell’s own relationship with working with “riso” dates to a solo show Gonzalo was doing called “Primary Interactions” at Pioneer Works, a gallery in Red Hook. Shortly after, they would start the business out of Gonzalo’s Ridgewood apartment.
Outside of selling their own riso-printing services, they also run something called the “People’s Riso Club,” which has “printed fliers for neighborhood community groups, voter guides, zines & pamphlets for activists,” Ridgedell says. According to the company’s website, this involves offering “low cost or free printing services for local organizations and activists.” You can submit your ideas for “disseminating anti-fascist, anti-capitalist, anti-racist teachings” for their approval through a google form.
“We’ve printed for local mutual aid groups… zines and fliers for fundraisers for Palestinian liberation and are currently working with a group doing an oral history project about Riis Beach,” she says. To hear her tell it, selling colorful, experimental books of screenprints is a way of fighting capitalism. She describes, for instance, their decision to sell the Can Can Press’ books as a way of “pushing against capitalist principles that breed competition and whisper notes of scarcity.”
“We recognize the value of printed materials, be it beautifully designed or simply informative, as means to disseminate information outside of traditional channels,” she says.
Secret Riso Club is located at 122 Central Avenue and is open from 1-7pm on Thursdays and Fridays and from 12-7pm on Saturdays and from 12-6pm on Sundays. Keep up with their hours on Instagram.
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