All around the office, at the level of the transom, over which, at least in theory, submissions flood in, runs a frieze of our covers, framed year by year. There’s enough room, if you’re calculating the dimensions of this perimeter, for two more years before we have to start a second row. (The complete run, spine out, including the four first-novels and four collections of poetry we’ve published, takes up exactly one yard of shelf space.)

These framed covers and some of the original images they feature, as well as related ephemera, will be on display in April at 871 Fine Arts, 49 Geary, San Francisco, thanks to gallerist Adrienne Fish’s interest in art & literature; her gallery is also a major resource for art books and catalogs.

Highlights include Dugald Stermer’s eloquent rendering of a zyzzyva for the premiere issue; photographs by Judy Dater, John Gutmann, Lynda Koolish, Jock Sturges; Deborah Oropallo’s camera-ready mock-up; William T. Wiley’s notorious key-tie; paintings by three of our Board members, Naomie Kremer, Mike McCall, and James Watts; a Billy Collins broadsheet produced by Kathi George, widow of the poet Charlie George, who served all too briefly on our Board; the John Baldessari litho donated to us by Lowell Darling; and the four prints, editions of which were donated to the cause, by Christopher Brown, Squeak Carnwath, Richard Diebenkorn, and Frank Lobdell. The first two have sold out; the Diebenkorn lithograph is $1,500; the Lobdell etching, $350.

Our first issue contained twelve art images, plus seven editorial illustrations/photographs (and nine pages of ads); the 66th issue contained 38 photographs (and 26 pages of ads). We now separate each text from the next by images that are unrelated in any programmatic way. This notion—that a litmag should contain lots of art—is now standard practice; we’d like to think we were in the vanguard of this development. We have certainly shown that ads, even in a tiny litmag, can become a major source of revenue, our version of corporate support. Unlike our colleagues, we actually sell our ads; we don’t pad our pages with exchange ads, although we do give freebies to a few nonprofit cultural organizations.

This will be the fifth exhibition of ZYZZYVA art. The first was a potpourri at the Bank of America Gallery; then, (commissioned) self-portraits at Edith Caldwell Gallery; then, more self-portraits, at Victoria Room; then, previously unpublished architects at 3A Garage. None of these venues is still extant. We wish 871 Fine Arts better luck.