Tim Sumner on relaunching his paper bag archive project as a zine series and the project’s future

For Tim Sumner, quitting wasn’t an option when the Kickstarter campaign for his book failed to meet its goal. To Have and To Hold, and his archive of paper bags, has instead taken on a new life in the form of a beautifully curated zine series. With each entry dedicated to a specific source, the zine’s inaugural issue pays homage to the paper bags collected from book shops. To find out more, we spoke to Tim about the shifting nature of the project, as well as the launch and growing impact of its Instagram account @paper_bag_archive. PT: First of all, where did the name ‘To Have & To Hold’ come from? TS: To Have & To Hold came from a student project, originally a large format book that I created. Of course, the name responds to the notion of collecting ‘To Have’ and the bags themselves are created with a purpose ‘To Hold.’