They printed the protest by hand: welcome to the wild age of the counter-press.

Nearly 400 titles. Sheets printed with offset presses in cellars, hand-stapled fanzines, wall newspapers plastered up in the early morning. Between May '68 and the arrival of pirate radio, a wild press sprang up all over France— ecological before its time, feminist, anti-militarist, libertarian, graphically unconventional. Leading titles sit alongside one-night publications, poetic pamphlets, and science-fiction gazettes that are no longer found anywhere. The exhibition retraces the epic story of this counter-press: collage as a weapon, handwritten typography as a manifesto, and Do It Yourself as a political act. A graphic laboratory of wild inventiveness, overtaken by censorship and the passing of the torch to punk.

BnF FRANÇOIS-MITTERRAND
Until October 18, 2026
Quai François-Mauriac, 75013
Metro: Bibliothèque F.-Mitterrand (Line 14)
Mon. 2 pm–8 pm, Tue.–Sat. 10 am–8 pm,
Sun. 1 pm–7 pm - Free admission