Cactus magazine is a project that started in 1989, influenced by mailart, collaborations with artists across east/west europe, our own politics and a boredom with graphic design's cult of the personality.

Cactus is a communication network which produces a collection of work from around the globe every six months. It is a non-profit making project presenting an opportunity for the exchange of ideas across a range of cultures, retaining a non-selective policy enabling people to disseminate their views unedited. To succeed, the network relies on the co-operation of all the participants, based on mutual communication rather than self-promotion.

There have been 17 issues produced to date, and this will probably be the last. Each issue is set around a theme, participants are asked to send 150 copies of their work at a maximum size. The work is then divided out into packs and a set sent out to everyone.

Free exchange is one of the main objectives, avoiding the usual distribution channels, creating new networks, mutual inspiration and breaking imposed catagories. The links below show a picture of the packs and some of them being made. When we have time we will include the enclosed work...

[01] "Events in your country"
---- Oct 1989

[02] "Food and waste"
---- Feb 1990

[03] "Tourism"
---- July 1990

[04] "Transmission"
---- Nov 1990

[05] "Mother"
---- Apr 1991

[06] "Colours"
---- Aug 1991

[07] "New tongues"
---- Nov 1991

[08] "Volatile circus"
---- Feb 1992

[09] "Fuel to fight fascism"
---- Aug 1992

[10] "Only dead fish go with the flow"
---- Jan 1993

[11] "Hot and cold"
---- Jul 1993

[12] "Noise"
---- May 1994

[13] "Do it yourself"
---- Jul 1995

[14] "Playtime"
---- Mar 1996

[15] "Parasite"
---- Dec 1997

[16] "Catapult"
---- Oct 1998

[17] "Mayday"
---- May 2000

[00] Themes/Briefs
---- issues 1-17