Genderfail 10 Years of Failing Forward
October 24th—Novemeber 30th, 2025
Curated by Gonzalo Guerrero
Secret Riso Club
122 Central Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11221
Curated by Gonzalo Guerrero, Genderfail 10 Years of Failing Forward presents approximately 146 editioned publications produced by Be Oakley in the decade of running and maintaining GenderFail. The books offered here represent 32,730 books or 3,135,723 pages of mostly QTBIPOC, Queer, trans, and Non-binary work across all the editions presented here. Of these books, 23,723 were handmade by Oakley, using 447,727 sheets of paper. The publications on view here are divided into three groups: self-published works by be Oakley, anthologies featuring multiple contributors, and solo publications by individual artists/writers. The work of GenderFail is neither academic nor institutional, nor that of a master craftsperson or printer; instead, it demonstrates the agency of persistence and dedication in publishing urgent, powerfully imperfect texts. This exhibition aims to celebrate the working-class ethos of small and self-publishing.
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This exhibition was curated as part of GenderFail’s 10-year Anniversary Fundraiser.
GenderFail celebrated its 10th anniversary at Secret Riso Club. On October 24, 2015, a Kickstarter campaign we ran failed spectacularly, raising only $118 of the $2,000 sought to start GenderFail. In true GenderFail fashion, we aim to celebrate this unintentional “failure” as an essential lesson in maintaining and sustaining the GenderFail ethos. Ten years later, we again attempted to raise the $2,000 initially sought a decade ago to help sustain the press in these difficult times. We fundraised $2,200!
On October 24th, 2025, we celebrated a decade of self-funded small press publishing with a retrospective exhibition featuring a timeline of the 130+ editions published by GenderFail, curated by Gonzalo Guerrero. In addition, a protest-inspired open-source printmaking workshop, DJ sets by E. Jane and c͓̽r͓̽y͓̽$͓̽c͓̽r͓̽o͓̽s͓̽s͓̽, and karaoke hosted by Irrelevant Press and special remarks by Legacy Russell made this special day even more memorable.
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This exhibition was curated as part of GenderFail’s 10-year Anniversary Fundraiser.
GenderFail celebrated its 10th anniversary at Secret Riso Club. On October 24, 2015, a Kickstarter campaign we ran failed spectacularly, raising only $118 of the $2,000 sought to start GenderFail. In true GenderFail fashion, we aim to celebrate this unintentional “failure” as an essential lesson in maintaining and sustaining the GenderFail ethos. Ten years later, we again attempted to raise the $2,000 initially sought a decade ago to help sustain the press in these difficult times. We fundraised $2,200!
On October 24th, 2025, we celebrated a decade of self-funded small press publishing with a retrospective exhibition featuring a timeline of the 130+ editions published by GenderFail, curated by Gonzalo Guerrero. In addition, a protest-inspired open-source printmaking workshop, DJ sets by E. Jane and c͓̽r͓̽y͓̽$͓̽c͓̽r͓̽o͓̽s͓̽s͓̽, and karaoke hosted by Irrelevant Press and special remarks by Legacy Russell made this special day even more memorable.
