Thick Press

A collaboration between a social worker and a graphic designer, Thick Press makes unusual books about care work and the work of care. Based on a strong interest in the book as both an object and a way to organize a public, Thick Press’s work lives at the intersection of social work, design, and publishing (nonfiction, academic, and artists' books). We are as interested in process as product, and we seek deep and warm but challenging collaborations with folks from a range of disciplines. Much of our work is polyphonic, often resulting in events that bring multiple people together around a book. Our books range from zines photocopied at the corner copy shop to a wirebound workbook to a sumptuous smyth sewn hardcover book printed in Iceland to everything in between. For the past two years, we have been compiling "An Encyclopedia of Radical Helping," which contains contributions from over 200 therapists, social workers, artists, educators, witches, body workers, and more. This 512-page volume, meticulously edited but imbued with an inclusive, zine-like ethos, is very much the culmination of six years of collaborative book-making.