The Shelf
at Maximillian William
Curator & Programming
The Shelf is an effort to broaden the discourse emerging from the gallery by giving space to an ecology of independent publishers, publications, and editorial projects we admire. Utilising the existing shelves in the front windows, residents of The Shelf work closely with the gallery to present a curated display of texts. Each collaboration culminates in an event hosted in the gallery space, showcasing undervalued narratives and demonstrating our ongoing commitment to the cross-pollination of ideas.
The Shelf runs adjacent to but independent of exhibition programming.
Viscose Journal
November 2025–January 2026
New Papers
September 2025For the month of September, New Papers took over The Shelf at Maximillian William, in the gallery’s front window vitrine. The window was covered with a trompe l’oeil style vinyl mirroring Mortimer Cafe across the street. New Papers held their launch in the gallery on September 5 with a series of performances.
New Papers is a magazine that publishes new fiction and poetry. Each issue’s publication is accompanied by its live and sequential performance at the Rose Lipman Centre in London.
motor dance journal
August 2025For August, motor dance journal took over The Shelf with a display including works by Joan Horrach Vidal, Zara Joan Miller, René Scheibenbauer and Lydia Walker, and Daniel Rey, as well as printed influences.
motor is an independent publishing project dedicated to dance and writing about dance. Exploring the choreographic potential of language, motor gives dance a space of critical endurance in print. In a landscape where dance remains an undervalued and under-accessed art form, motor opens it up to wider audiences through experimental and interdisciplinary engagements
The Toe Rag
September 2025Over June, The Toe Rag magazine took over The Shelf to mark the launch of their sixth issue, on the theme of Artefacts. The Toe Rag is a quarterly print magazine covering contemporary culture, spanning visual art, music, architecture, theatre, performance, fashion, politics and literature. Founded in December 2023, the magazine publishes work that is formally ambitious, considered and incisive.