The Little Cockroach Press is a series of 20 artist-designed pamphlets published by Art Metropole between April 1996 and July 2000.
The title of the series presumably intended to conflate a play on words of the Little Critic Pamphlets (published by Coracle Press, including projects by Kay Rosen, Simon Cutts and John Bevis) and the cockroach doodles by General Idea member Jorge Zontal. The series is dedicated to Zontal, who died of AIDS two years prior, in 1994, and (if I recall correctly) was partially funded by money he left to Art Metropole in his will.
They were produced in editions of 1000 copies, which were distributed free of charge to Art Metropole's mailing list. Copies now sell on the secondary market from between $20 and $200. Twenty-five copies were signed and set aside for a special edition, which was housed in a cardboard box designed by James Carl. This intially sold for $350, and is now unavailable.
Originally edited by Roger Bywater and AA Bronson (and later John Goodwin) the series included works by both emerging and established artists, as well as a film maker (John Waters) and a rock band (Sonic Youth):
1. Television talk / Stan Douglas
2. Magazine / Matthias Herrmann
3. I hear the strain of a strutting chanticleer / Stephen Clayton Ellwood
4 Yankees / Roderick Buchanan
5. Paperback / Emma Kay
6. August 29, 1994 / Alfredo Jaar
7. Shopping parade / Stephen Willats
8. Legend / James Carl
9. Katie gets wet / Katie Bush
10. Ladies and gentleman / Zoe Leonard
11. Centre-parting / David Shrigley
12. Untitled / Lucy Pullen and Sandy Plotnikoff
13. 12 assholes and a dirty foot / John Waters
14. Billy's journal / Andrew Hunter
15. Concrete warriors / Harvey Manning
16. The wisdom of Mataji & Bapuji / Linda M. Montano
17. Freezer / Maurizio Nannucci
18. Untitled / AA Bronson & Matthias Herrmann
19. Troubles by design, a breaking up book/design by troubles, a book about breaking up / Jinhan Ko & Janet Lobberecht
20. Letter from NYC / Sonic Youth.
I’ll post scans from this series, one a day for the remainder of the month.
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