Seize Control of the FDA ACT UP Typeset is a zine and essay based on a typeset designed by Be Oakley. This font was made from the design of protest signs used during an important and historic event in queer liberation. By sourcing letters from the handwritten signs, the font looks to both historicize and reenact this important event in the ACT UP Timeline. This zine is a reprinting of The FDA Action Handbook by Jim Eigo, Mark Harrington, Margaret McCarthy, Stephen Spinella, Rick Sugden 9-12-88 typeset from protest signs from the event itself. This handbook was created for the Seize Control of the FDA event, to demand that HIV and AIDS medication be fast approved and reprioritized. This is a powerful text on our relationship to medication during the early days of the AIDS pandemic. The handbook, as well as other historical documentation from the Act Up movement.

Introduction: WHY THE FDA? is an excerpt from The FDA Action Handbook by Jim Eigo, Mark Harrington, Margaret McCarthy, Stephen Spinella, Rick Sugden 9-12-88. This zine is printed in conjunction with a 622 page artist book published on the occasion of WSW Upstate Art Book Fair: Featured Publisher’s Exhibition Seize Control of the FDA at Women’s Studio Workshop on view July 11-November 4 2022. - GenderFail