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Our Mission

FULGUR PRESS is the leading independent publisher for esotericism and magic in visual culture. Founded in 1992 by Robert Shehu-Ansell, the press works with artists, writers and editors who explore ideas of agency and enchantment through scholarship and practice. With an emphasis upon material quality and editorial rigour, we seek to make books that challenge the Enlightenment treatment of magic and so rediscover its role and cultural impact today.

Re-examining esoteric ideas and taking them into new cultural spaces interests us. We believe these ideas offer a means to reconnect with nature, identity and a sense of meaning in the world today. Over the last 125 years, enquiring artists have explored such ideas with similar aims. Our publishing and events programme celebrates their work and provides the tools for others to develop these ideas further.

PUBLICATIONS

Fulgur has revived the esoteric book as an artistic medium.
Aaron Lister, curator of Occulture: The Dark Arts – City Gallery Wellington, NZ, 2017

In our catalogue you will find classic monographs, scholarly studies, historical facsimiles, works from artist-practitioners and volumes of collected essays and art. We also produce series publications exploring esoteric themes, including Abraxas and Black Mirror. 

Since 1992, FULGUR PRESS has pioneered the idea of the talismanic book. This is a philosophy that explores the book-object as an agent for personal and social change. Our approach has broken with the traditional occult aesthetic and embraced a style that is modern and understated. Our books are manufactured to the highest standards, using materials from accredited sources. As publishers we place emphasis upon specifics – conceptual, material and typographic. Over more than twenty-five years we have developed a progressive design sensibility that mediates between subject and reader. Our aim has been to move beyond ideas that place magic in the past and present it to you with contemporary vitality.

In addition to our trade publications, we also produce limited editions and deluxe issues. These are generally hand-numbered or signed by the artist and offered exclusively from our website. We work with the award-winning team of craftsmen at Ludlow Bookbinding, who have produced our deluxe issues for more than a decade. We are driven to bring standards of excellence, craftsmanship and innovation to the genre. Our work has been featured by Bookforum, The New York Post, The Guardian, The New York Times, The LA Review of Books, Hyperallergic, BoingBoing, The Daily Mail, Dazed and Confused, WIRED and many others.

COMMUNITY

Fulgur is part of a movement that rejects the notions of the esoteric and the occult as something irrational, regressive and essentially anti-modern, by connecting them to the avant-garde of each era.
Roberta Bosca, El País, 3 January, 2015

We support the fostering of community through live events. This extends across both academic and popular platforms where we seek to bridge approaches through our long involvement with contemporary scholarship, art practice and reader engagement. Some of the most important names in Western esotericism have collaborated with us – from emerging artists or established writers to respected academics and Turner-prize nominees.

We have developed close partnerships with New York University Steinhardt, Plymouth College of Art, The Slade School of Fine Art and Arts University Bournemouth who have hosted various events and conferences that share our objectives. I:MAGE, our own pop-up event space, offers a further platform for artists to explore these ideas through exhibitions, workshops and lecture programmes.

Beyond these large events, we also host book launches internationally.