The word “publish,” now commonly understood to mean “to publish” or “to make public,” is said to originate from the idea of “creating a public (publicus) place” and “making something known to people.” Before the widespread use of printing technology, it was also used to describe the act of reading poetry or texts aloud and sharing them with others.

If we think of “publish” in a broader sense, perhaps it can mean more than producing publications alone. It may also include creating spaces and opportunities through which people can communicate and share something meaningful with others.

One of the distinctive features of Pages | Fukuoka Art Book Fair is the large number of exhibitors from across Asia. This two-part talk program welcomes guests from different parts of Asia and revisits the original meaning of “publish” through conversations with practitioners engaged in locally rooted forms of “Local Publish-ing” — activities that emerge from and respond to their own communities and contexts.

In the first part of this two-part talk program, Seoul-based practitioners Minguhong and Lim Kyungyong will discuss a new platform they are currently developing. Their conversation originally began from a shared concern with the publishing scene in Asia. Through projects such as Publishing as Method in 2020 and the BookBook Festival in 2025, Lim Kyungyong has continued to explore the networks and possibilities of independent publishing across Asia.

Why Asia, and what does it mean to speak of Asia today? The Asia discussed here is not a fixed identity or essence, but something closer to the critical position proposed by Takeuchi Yoshimi in “Asia as Method” (方法としてのアジア). In his 1961 lecture, Takeuchi described Asia not as an essence to be discovered, but as a method. Drawing from the thought of Lu Xun, he proposed Asia as a practical and critical concept through which one might challenge Western centrism and the universality it claims for itself.

If so, the question “What is Asian publishing?” or “What is Asian independent publishing?” may itself be misguided from the beginning. The important task is not to define a fixed entity, but to ask from where, and in what way, a critical position might be established against the institutional, economic, and cultural centralities that shape contemporary art publishing. This does not mean that publishing in Asia automatically becomes an alternative. The moment it is fixed as an essence or model, it simply risks becoming another center.
Within this context, the wiki becomes an especially interesting tool. A wiki is inherently decentralized, without a stable center, and constantly revised and expanded. These characteristics resonate closely with the loosely connected movements of small-scale publishing scenes. At the same time, perhaps more than ever, this is a moment in which the information, knowledge, experiences, and failures we have accumulated need to be shared collectively. The wiki may offer one practical form for doing so.

During this talk, Minguhong and Lim Kyungyong will discuss the possibilities and uses of “A Wiki for Small-Scale Publishing in Asia (working title),” initiated by Lee Jaehyun. Everyone attending this event can become not only a user, but also a contributor to this platform. Through this space, we may begin to connect forms of knowledge and sensibility that are necessary, yet not easily shared.
Of course, this proposal may sound somewhat idealistic. Yet this experiment cannot be divided so simply into success or failure. We warmly invite everyone to join the conversation.