Since 2008 or thereabouts, MuseumsEtc has published more than 100 titles that fuse photography, social history and politics in a series of beautifully bespoke editions. This month sees the publication of three new books that sum up the quietly radical ethos of the Edinburgh based but avowedly internationalist independent imprint.
Jo Spence: The Unknown Recordings compiles transcripts of tapes made by the feminist writer and photographer that reveal an unflinching and at times painful look at Spence’s life and work as a low paid working class artist. The texts are accompanied by images taken in her cramped Islington flat that make for an intimate and unsettling self-portrait of one of the late twentieth century’s most singular of artists.
The Erasure of Palestine collects more than 80 images taken over three years by photographer Ahmad Al-Bazz of what remains of the hundreds of towns and villages depopulated and destroyed during the creation and expansion of Israel from 1948 to today. Culture and Capitalism, meanwhile, is a collection of essays by cultural theorist Henry Giroux. In a series of new works that dissects neo-liberalism, Giroux posits the notion that culture has become the central battleground in the struggle against all encroaching authoritarianism, and stands on the frontline of the fight.
“On the face of it, they look like very different books,” says MuseumEtc’s founder and driving force, Graeme Farnell. “One is about Palestine, one is about an artist who died quite a few years ago now, and one is by a Canadian academic. But they're all really looking at culture and art and photography in the context of capitalism. What we're interested in is the way in which artists, or photographers in particular, can use their art to really argue against all the things that we know are not right.”
As a former museum curator, Farnell initially published books for museums and galleries before developing an interest in photography. Rather than looking at recent history in gritty black and white, however, MuseumsEtc’s focus is on socially engaged new work.
“There are plenty of things that need to change,” says Farnell. “and we would like to facilitate and encourage photographers to play a role in that. Therefore we're publishing books by photographers, or in one case, an academic, who are cogent about the changes they want, and really making a big effort to make them happen.”
The List, March 2026
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