by Caren Florance (aka Ampersand Duck)

Opens Thursday 3 September at 6pm. All welcome.

Exhibition continues to 12 September 2009

Gallery hours: Tuesday to Saturday 9.30am to 6pm.

Combining her creative and recycling urges, Canberra bookmaker and artist Caren Florance of Ampersand Duck Press has produced an exquisite exhibition of handmade books, boxes and works on paper currently showing at the Megalo Print Studio + Gallery.

Caren states, “I have a burning desire not to waste materials, and my artist’s books are made from paper or other materials left over from more formal projects. Many of my unique books are made from the print proofs, ghosts or off-cuts of commissioned letterpress work.”

Caren has established Ampersand Duck, a publishing press based in Canberra that aims to produce quality hand-printed, hand-bound books and other printed matter in collaboration with artists and writers. Using traditional and laborious hand-set type and letterpress, she combines the roles of printer and designer/collaborator. When not working on press projects, teaches the relatively unknown genre of Book Arts at the ANU School of Art and at various community arts venues.

Caren sees her recycled books as souvenirs of projects she has completed for other artists and writers. They give new life to the off-cuts and left-overs, and allow Caren to take a more experimental approach to creating work. She states “I often spend so much time with the words and images of a single book project that it is refreshing to rework them in a different, more playful context, which allows me to extend my appreciation of the original text beyond the realms of the traditional page layout.”

The books also indulge her passion for collecting old and unusual publications.” I also like to trawl second-hand book sales and rescue under-appreciated books to rework them into something people might value again. I might use the title and/or cover of vintage novels to begin new stories that the viewer can continue in their own imagination. In any case, my working methods seem perfectly in tune with a world that is once again recognising the need to re-use and recycle as a cultural process. “

For more information on the exhibition, phone 6241 4844 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
For more information on Ampersand Duck, visit the website: www.ampersandduck.com