Zine Review: “Personals”

“Personals”
JMAH + Contributors
personals.zine@gmail.com

After reviewing Zine Crush 3 and Dear Crush, I have to admit that I went into this assuming that ‘personals’ was going to be about dating.

Sometimes it’s nice to be wrong.

Rather than searching for love out in the wide world, “Personals” is about finding the love of one’s body. From wrists and necks to armpits and power pooches, it’s about love and appreciation for those body parts that give us (and sometimes others) pleasure in one way or another. Each piece is accompanied by art, and each piece of art is like a tribute to the body part the person is writing to.

They are sort of personals in the sense that some end with phone numbers. But they tend to be a sort of throwaway note. ‘Oh, yeah. By the way…’ I wonder if the numbers and emails are real, but I’m not game enough to have a go.

I like the lines that turn not only the interior but the cover as well into a notebook of sorts. It seems like such a small thing on the surface, but it’s sort of a subconscious suggestion that this is a notebook, making the content within more personal. (No pun intended.)

I do have to admit that I sometimes had to hold the zine a bit close to my face to read some of the pieces, but so runs the risk of using handwriting. Given the kind of zine this turned out to be, typing wouldn’t have worked as well. So I’ll take holding it close to my face for the sake of the art.

I have to mention the last piece. It was sad and beautiful, and it reminded me entirely too much of my own life. It was Clair de Lune, haunting me. I’m glad it was left until last.

“Personals” is a slightly different take on body acceptance, but what it does, it does well.