The first Issue wasn't about finding the most established names. It was about finding the right ones.

Australia and New Zealand weren't a coincidence. BSS began here — and Issue 000 reflects that. These are the countries where the first chapter was written, where the first believers were found, and where the work of building something new without a blueprint actually started.

Deriva, James Warrender, and Sienna Wells were chosen because they already know what it costs to build something real without a safety net — and because they do it anyway. Not because the path is easy, but because the work demands it. The kind of drive and ambition that doesn't wait for permission. James paints and designs fashion. Sienna writes novels and makes oil paintings. Deriva makes work about the tension between inner life and external pressure — and built BSS because she'd seen that gap up close for long enough.

The art world has always been better at celebrating arrival than supporting the journey. BSS was built for the in-between — for artists with serious practices, serious drive, and no system designed to meet them where they are. These three are the first to believe in that idea. They're Issue 000 because every meaningful thing starts somewhere, and this is where we start.