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.”