︎NEW ZINE RELEASE
Do Not Fold, Spindle or Mutilate (2026)
Do Not Fold, Spindle, or Mutilate, by Qiana Mestrich, accompanies my CPW exhibition of the same name, that was on view from January 31 - May 10, 2026. This artist book consists of collage work from my collage series The Reinforcements, as well as photographs of my mother Lydia in her midtown office of the Rugol Trading Corporation in the late 1960s, and an illustrated interview between us.
The book is published by CPW, produced and printed by 1080PRESS, and designed by Mestrich with Vladimir Nahitchevansky of 1080Press.
$45 - Online
Limited Edition: 100 signed copies
Page count: 62 pages
︎ Decolonization and Diversity in Contemporary Photography: The Dodge & Burn Interviews (2025)
By Qiana Mestrich
︎ ORDER on Routledge (publisher’s website)
Also available on Amazon
ISBN 9781138955929326
Pages 162 Color & 57 B/W Illustrations
Publish Date: March 7, 2025 by Roultledge
BOOK COVER PHOTO: Nakeya Brown
Who’s documenting the evolution of photography as it is happening now from an inclusive, transnational perspective? This is the challenge the Dodge & Burn book aims to address. This collection is the print manifestation of the Dodge & Burn photography blog, publishing a selection of 35 interviews with photographers and art professionals from underrepresented communities—those of African, Asian, Latinx/é and Native American heritage.
In addition to the interviews, there is a foreword by Carla Williams and 7 critical essays on photography I’ve written on themes such as the post-colonial gaze, Black motherhood, self-preservation art practices, America’s history of redlining, Black female performance and more.
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(up)rooted zine
(2024)
On the occaision of her photobook signing for her latest publication, This Train (MACK, 2024), Justine Kurland curated and Dashwood published this series of six limited edition zines with artists on the subject of Motherhood. The Mother zine series were printed in an edition of 100 copies, 20pp staple bound color and were sold with an obi band along with This Train. The zines and Kurland’s book are now sold out.
The Mother zine series included: Family Table by Elizabeth Pedinotti Haynes, My Minky by Jacky Marshall, (up)rooted by Qiana Mestrich, Ouroboros by Jacquelyne Pierson, env-IRON-ment by Júlia Pontés, and Origin by Gwen Smith.
TOPSY TURVY zine
(2022)
About this Publication
TOPSY TURVY (2022) is a limited-edition zine that presents the second installment of The Black Doll series, a collection of non-gestural, digital images rooted in the aesthetic tradition of geometric abstraction. Appropriating original imagery of vintage black dolls for sale on Etsy and eBay, I have abstracted the dolls beyond recognition and paired them with their often-racialized item descriptions.
This new series is inspired by the two-headed, reversible, “topsy turvy” cloth dolls invented and handmade by enslaved African-American women for their children. One face of the doll was a White, European-American child, while the other was a Black, African-American child - both were sewn together in the middle with a long skirt. This unique design ensured that during play, the doll could be “flipped” from one side to another.
While the purpose of these dolls is still misunderstood, it is believed that this topsy turvy design enabled enslaved children to play with toys made in their image which could then easily be hidden (by playing with the white doll) around white folks. The Topsy Turvy series presents a wide collection of racialized vintage dolls from the 19th and 20th centuries and continues to explore how whiteness in America is forever linked to its black counterpart, and vice versa.
Order online at Stellazine
IDEOLOGIES
(RAY 2021 Exhibition Catalog)
About this Publication
ORDER: The RAY 2021 IDEOLOGIES catalog published by Kehrer Verlag.
What lies behind ideologies? How do different philosophies of life, political theories and other Values develop? How do they seem to others? And to what extent do they support power, manipulation, abuse, exclusion and exploitation in a wide variety of different societies?
In this publication, accompanying the fourth international Triennial of photographic arts in Frankfurt/RhineMain, artists like Máté Bartha, Johanna Diehl, Yves Sambu, Ja'Tovia Gary, and others use their work to reveal ideologies in the past and present. They demonstrate how ideologies have been expressed over the time and whether there are differences or not. Renowned authors further expand the discussion of this very current topic with their essay contributions.
Artists: Nicole Ahland, Akinbode Akinbiyi, Máté Bartha, Johanna Diehl, Yagazie Emezi, Friedrich Robert Otto Emmel, Sibylle Fendt, Ja'Tovia Gary, Eddo Hartmann, Nini und Carry Hess, Marta Hoepffner, Paula Markert, Eva und Franco Mattes, Qiana Mestrich, Lee Miller, Mohau Modisakeng, Hilde Roth, Yves Sambu, Adrian Sauer, Salvatore Vitale
Authors: Anne-Marie Beckmann, Max Czollek, Ralf Dingeldein, Janine Drewes, Kémi Fátoba, Rainer Forst, Valentine Goldmann, Elke Gruhn, Beate Kemfert, Eckhardt Köhn, Franziska Kunze, Christina Leber, Alexandra Lechner, Dorothee Linnemann, Celina Lunsford, Dietmar Mezler, Susanne Pfeffer, Yasmina Price, Julia Reichelt, Anna Sailer, Wolfgang Ullrich, Matthias Wagner K, Susanne Wartenberg