CACTUS PRESS 仙人掌印務部

 
cactuspressnl@gmail.com
Instagram:@howlingcactus_



A publishing collective formed by three women living between the Netherlands and the Chinese speaking world.


Cactus Press develops a hybrid practice that connects print media, sound, moving image,exhibition-making, and participatory performance. We are drawn to gestures of resistance that grow out of dryness and silence. For us, publishing is an attempt to speak again across different soils—a process of interpenetration and exchange that turns each book into a living hypertext. Each publication becomes a node that links to other forms and contexts, generating new relations that keep the practice open, porous, and alive.

CONTACT
WHAT IS HAPPENING




Uncoming Book Fair
  • Apr. 17-19 — London
    — Outland Publishing Fair


  • Past Events
  • 2026

    Jan. 10-31 — Changsha
    — Lailaihuihui
      Exhibition:Please Dance Happily and Freely
     

    Jan. 10-11 — Changsha
    — Lailaihuihui

      Dance Workshop

    Jan. 31 — Rotterdam
    Dokhuis Zinefair


    2025

    Dec. 6 — The Hague 
    — Nowhere Zine Island

    Dec. 6-8 — Bangkok
    — Book Fair

    Dec. 13 — Utrecht 
    — FOTODOK × Casco Book Fair

    Dec. 18 — Utrecht 
    — Basecamp

    Dec. 19-21 — Tokyo 
    — Tokyo Art Book Fair

  • Dec. 28 — Kunming
    — Used Good Fair














    1.Please Dance Happily and Freely
      欢乐地跳吧

    Please Dance Happily and Freely


    Please Dance Happily and Freely presents artist Wang Xue Sophia’s long-term research on Meshrep—commonly known as Mai Dance—a form rooted in China’s square dancing culture.

    Using “dancing with others” as a fieldwork method, the artist explores how this ritual-based dance has entered urban squares, residential communities, and everyday life, generating new forms of connection across migration, generations, and bodies.

    Approaching square dancing as a form of social theatre, the exhibition examines how bodies are disciplined through collective performance while simultaneously producing subtle modes of resistance. Presented as a video installation, the work traces the circulation and reconfiguration of Mai Dance across different cities and embodied experiences.

    Movement trajectories of the dancers are projected from the ceiling onto the floor, inviting viewers to physically follow, mimic, or cross these paths—transforming spectatorship into a shared, embodied experience that navigates the shifting boundary between discipline and freedom.


    Artist:
    Wang Xue Sophia

    Curator:
    Cactus Press

    Venue:
    LaiLai HuiHui
    No. 16 Tanshi Road, Xihu Street
    Yuelu District, Changsha, Hunan Province, China

    Duration:
    January 10 – Jan 31, 2026

    Visual Design:
    Jasper Caoyi

    Project Coordination:
    Qiao, Deby

    Exhibition Execution:
    Wang Xue Sophia, Deby, Qiao



    © CACTUS PRESS 2025