Finlay Press is a private press established by Ingeborg Hansen and Phil Day. They began printing in Goulburn, NSW, Australia in 1997. In 2001 the press moved to Braidwood, NSW, where they designed and printed numerous publications before closing the press in 2009.

Hansen and Day were graduates of the Graphic Investigation Workshop (GIW) at the Canberra School of Art (now ANU School of Art), where they studied under Petr Herel and Peter Finlay. Herel, an advocate of the artist book, head lecturer of the GIW, and founder of the Artist Book Studio (ABS, est. 1994), and Finlay, a compositor and printer by trade, both inspired Hansen and Day to continue making books after their graduation. Finlay’s name was chosen for their press name largely because of Finlay’s life-long involvement in letterpress printing; he started as an apprentice compositor then worked professionally as a printer, a teacher of all aspects of book production in numerous technical colleges, and he assisted other private press printers including Alec Bolton in the early days of Brindabella Press – a role in private press productions that Hansen and Day thought would otherwise be overlooked.

Hansen and Day’s first collaborative book was Imaginary Thoughts and Their Beings (1995), printed in the ABS. Hansen supplied a prose poem while Day supplied eight etchings. Earlier books by Hansen were often unique copies featuring her own writing, some including textiles for pages, most of them letterpress printed onto cheap coloured papers. Day’s earlier books were more typical hand-made book productions utilizing tradition printmaking and letterpress techniques printed onto art papers.  In 1996 Hansen and Day collaborated on a zine called PAB (taking its name from the initials of the French poet Pierre Albert-Birot), and invited others to contribute to each issue. There were 3 issues in an edition of 100 each. In 1996 the Artists Book Studio was separated from the Graphic Investigation Workshop to make an independent studio space. Herel chose to stay with the GIW. The ABS was renamed the Edition and Artist Book Studio (E+ABS) and was headed by Diane Fogwell. The E+ABS employed Day as its first printer and binder. Hansen was also employed as a printer for some titles. By late 1996 Hansen and Day had started gathering equipment to found a press. By 1997 they had printed their first title Burly Gryphon, dedicated to ‘Peter and Petr’ (Finlay and Herel) under the press name Finlay Press.

Finlay Press set out to work with authors and artists domiciled in Australia. The press wanted to establish a close working relationship with its contributors. Some authors, such as Gary Catalano, Julian Davies, and Robin Wallace-Crabbe had more than one title published; Wallace-Crabbe also contributed as a visual artist to three book titles, one folio, and a broadsheet.

The earlier books were printed under the imprint Yabber Yabber Publications as a publishing arm of Finlay Press. The publishing arrangements were simple: Finlay Press supplied half the money for the edition, and the remaining contributors supplied the other half, making all contributors publishers of the title. The finances were used solely for covering the cost of paper, nothing else. Once the edition was completed Finlay Press retained half the edition and the remainder were divided equally among the contributors. Hansen and Day closed Yabber Yabber Publications to gain complete control over all aspects of each title knowing that this would allow them to create a house style and print larger runs, and further books used the imprint Finlay Press.

Early titles from Finlay Press were printed in small runs ranging between twelve to thirty copies (with the exception of one title, The Seven Proses, which ran to two hundred copies). These early books were experimental in binding and layout, but were always true to the traditional notions of a book. Conscious of contemporary changes in paper, inks, bindings and printing techniques, Hansen and Day continued to find a way to a house style suitable for editions of over one hundred that was affordable on both money and time.

Later titles, editions between 25 to 150 copies, were printed and bound with a firm house style. Each publication used Magnani paper folded on the fore-edge, stitched with a Japanese binding and bound with a French false cover, then inserted into a slip case made from cardboard (usually a kraft stock). Some titles employed a concertina fold. Almost all titles were printed letterpress using hand-set Baskerville (with the exception of titling). The first title printed in the house style was Light and Water: Forty Prose Poems 1980-1999 (2002).

One later title deviated from the house style: Goodbye Eggcup. Two titles, I’ll Build You a Stairway to Paradise and Day by Day didn’t sit comfortably within the house style. I’ll Build You a Stairway to Paradise, a poem by Hartmann Wallis, is about a girl who is the sexual desire of an art student. It is accompanied with a lithograph by Day containing overtly sexual images, and the slip case is drawn on (not printed) with a felt pen; neither the subject nor use of felt pen comfortably sit with the printed nature of previous titles. Day by Day, a collection of poems by Pierre Albert-Birot, translated by James Grieve, is given a similar treatment. Its brightly-coloured card slipcases have more in common with Hansen’s pre-Finlay Press titles, and Day’s use of potato prints rather than ‘fine’ press techniques was unusual for the Press. One of the poems, ‘St Vincent’s Day’, is clearly not a Birot poem. It is most likely an original composition by Grieve. The production and content of Day by Day still fits with the Finlay Press house style, but the aforementioned details of the book, while still reserved, show the beginning of an abandonment of the house style. Day by Day was to be the last title published by Finlay Press.

By 2005 Hansen and Day wanted to print lengthy prose, particularly fiction, in higher editions, but the practicalities of doing this with hand-set type was simply not possible due to time, and limited type stock. James Grieve approached Finlay Press with the possibility of printing a novel; using linotype was the only possibility, but this didn’t solve the problem of binding approximately 500 copies. The solution was to create a new publishing arm. Hansen and Day discussed these ideas with Julian Davies and Robin Wallace-Crabbe (two author/artists they had already collaborated with) and enthused by the idea of independent publishing they founded Finlay Lloyd. The name Finlay, again, came from Peter Finlay and was retained from Finlay Press, and Lloyd was the name of Davies’s father, a man who had little interest in books. The first title, a collection of essays loosely discussing the fate of the book and literature titled When Books Die could be seen as a loose-fitting manifesto; it was released in 2006.

As mentioned before, the press disbanded in 2009.

ALL IMAGES BELOW ARE CONTENT © INGEBORG HANSEN & PHIL DAY, FINLAY PRESS. The copies are mine, and the images themselves are © Ampersand Duck.

Bibliography (basic, will add to it as more details come to light)

Early editions (Yabber Yabber, individual designs)

Burly Gryphon (1997)
- Ingeborg Hansen (prose)
- Phil Day (etchings)

Hungry Magpies (1997)
- Bernard Hardy (poetry)
- Ingeborg Hansen (lino cut, wood engraving)
- Phil Day (etchings)

Bomber (1997)
- Emma Veal (poem)
- Phil Day (etching)

Offerings (1997)
- G. W. Bot (poem, lino cuts)
- Ingeborg Hansen (binding)

Fth (1998)
- James Pollock (short story)
- Ingeborg Hansen (lino cuts)
- Phil Day (etchings)

The Last Lost Doughnut (1998)
- Robin Wallace-Crabbe (play)
- Ingeborg Hansen (typography)
- Virginia Wallace-Crabbe (bichromate photographs)
- Phil Day (lino cut paper masks)

Pandora’s Cat (2000)
- Robin Wallace-Crabbe (poem)
- Ingeborg Hansen (typography)
- Katie Clemson (lino cut)

Formingle
- Craig Charlton (musical composition)
- Kirsten Wolf (handmade paper)
- Phil Day (etching)

I, I Am, A Blind Man (1999)
- Petr Herel (etchings)

Household: Eleven Poems (1998)
- Gary Catalano (poems, lino cuts)
- Robin Wallace-Crabbe (lino cuts)
- Ingeborg Hansen (lino cuts)
- Phil Day (lino cuts)

Jabberwocky
- Julian McLucas

The Seven Proses (2000)
- Bernard Hardy (poems, wood engravings)

Finlay Press (with a house style)

Light and Water: Forty Prose Poems (2002)
- Gary Catalano (poetry)
- Robin Wallace-Crabbe (etchings and lino cut)

Pile of Hair (2003)
- Julian Davies (short story)
- John Pratt (etchings and woodcuts)
- Phil Day (Monotypes)

Through Hoops (2005)
- Gina Dow (poetry)
- Phil Day (copper engravings and linocut)
- Ingeborg Hansen (wood engravings)

Familiar Objects (2005)
- Phil Day (essay, lithography – some copies hand-coloured)

Goodbye Eggcup (2006)
- Phil Day (poetry, copper engraving, collograph)

Cat’s Eye (2008)
- Julian Davies (short story)
- Phil Day (copper plate engravings and monotype)

I’ll Build A Stairway To Paradise (2008)
- Hartmann Wallis (poetry)
- Phil Day (lithography)

Day By Day (2009)
- James Grieve (translations of Pierre Albert Birot poems)
- Phil Day (potato prints)

Print Folios

Top Ten Twentieth Century Monsters
- Phil Day (lino cut, copper engraving,  monotype)

Four Men and Their Ideas on the Erotic
- Ingeborg Hansen (lino cut)
- Robin Wallace-Crabbe (photo etching)
- Robert Jones (lino cut)
- Julian Davies (monotype)
- Phil Day (copper engraving)

Broadsheet

An Egyptian
- Hartmann Wallis (poem)
- Robin Wallace-Crabbe (etchings)

If you’d like to see the process of putting the exhibition together, and all the wonderful studio visits made by Anna-Maria to the craftspeople involved, here’s a link to all of her posts on the subject.

THE SERIES

These letters do not spell anything out deliberately; they were chosen to go with the images, which are little metal ornaments that I bought from eBay years ago. Feel free to make them spell things; Anna-Maria made them spell R&D in the show, others may want the word FORD, or maybe your name is DROF. Heh. The letters are 72pt Gill Sans, printed in a bright sexy red. All have little hand-filed deckles at the head and tail, and are numbered and signed.

Each of these is 45 x 32 mm in dimension, so you’re probably looking at them at a larger scale (which won’t do them any favours).

They’re not really meant to be lined up together, so I didn’t put a lot of effort into making the height of AMPERSAND DUCK match up. I designed each one as an individual, taking into account the balance of each image on the ‘page’.

Edition numbers are:

D: Dragonfly — 20

O: Owl — 20

R: Rat — 20

&: Ampersand — 10

F: Frog: 20

They are all still available.

THE OTHERS

Speaks for itself.

45 x 32mm, in an edition of 9. Still available.

Hammer Time. Hand-coloured.

55 x 32mm. Edition of 6. Still available.

Almost Ace. I just love this one. In amongst a box of miscellaneous letterpress stuff was this tiny little logo with the letters ACF, and I’ve looked at it for years wondering if anything could be done with it or should I just chuck it. One day… BING! I saw the way forward.

Printed on red Japanese washi, 42 x 30mm. Edition of 11. Still available.

All of these broadsides are Aus$10 each plus p&h.

Every few years the Technical Officers put on an exhibition to showcase the fact that they, too, are professional artists maintaining their own practice. In 2009 the show was called Art-i-Techs, and it opened on Wednesday 25 March at 6pm in the Foyer Gallery of the School of Art, Liversidge Crescent, Australian National University.

The show ran from 25 March to 4 April 2009.  I showed Transmigration (along with its prospectus), Pr0n Coktales and a couple of informal bindings.

A wide view of both my plinths

Transmigration + the prospectus for the book

on the left, pr0n coktales, and on the right, a few fun books I made to demonstrate techniques to students

Author: Rosemary Dobson
Artist: Rosalind Atkins
Design & Production: Ampersand Duck

Printed 2008, released 2009

Colophon

Poems to Hold or Let Go is the second volume in the Ampersand Duck fine press series, ‘Selected’.
Printed with photopolymer plate using letterpress processes in Garamond, accompanied by two exquisite boxwood wood engravings on cream 125gsm rag mould-made Magnani Vergata laid paper, in a cased binding of teal Buckram and letterpress-printed navy Wibalin with a dustjacket of wood and metal handset & printed Wibalin. 56pp. 240 x 163mm. Edition of 200.

A view of one of the printed sheets in production, featuring one of the two Ros Atkins wood engravings

About the book

Poems to Hold or Let Go is a selection of 41 poems by beloved Australian poet Rosemary Dobson that spans over 60 years of outstanding writing. It is a conceptual rather than chronological selection, leading the reader on a journey through the poet’s themes and preoccupations, then forking off into an autobiographical direction. The volume includes three later poems that have never been published in book form. The two original wood engravings act as portals to and from the journey, with two seminal Dobson poems acting as prologue and epilogue. The title is chosen by the poet, and suits the philosophical meanderings the reader will undergo.

This whole volume was designed with great care in consultation with Dobson, and the printer’s late-process surprise gesture to her was the use of metal Garamond type in the dustjacket design that had once belonged to her late husband, Alec Bolton, proprietor of the Canberra private press, Brindabella Press.

About the contributors

Rosemary Dobson

Born in 1920, Rosemary’s career as a writer of poetry began at school (Frensham, in the Southern Highlands of NSW). Rosemary’s career continued with early acceptance of publication in literary journals. She has published altogether since then 14 volumes of poetry, two books of prose and (in collaboration), two volumes of translations from Russian poetry. She has edited several anthologies. Her most recent volume, Untold Lives and Later Poems, won the 2001 Age Book of the Year award.

Rosemary has received a number of literary awards including the Patrick White Award for Literature (1984), the Australia Council’s Writers’ Emeritus Award (1996), a DLitt from Sydney University (1996) and the Order of Australia for services to Australian Literature (1987). In June 2006 she won the NSW Premier’s Special Award.

She was for some years on the Editorial Staff of Angus & Robertson, publishers. In 1951 she married Alec Bolton, printer and publisher and Founding Director of Publications at the National Library of Australia. Subsequently taking early retirement he founded his own printing press, the Brindabella Press, much praised for the standards he set in all aspects of book publication. He published 23 books, nearly all of poetry, before his untimely death in 1996.

Rosalind Atkins

Rosalind Atkins is a highly regarded printmaker whose prints have been published in conjunction with the works of some of Australia’s best-known poets, including Les Murray and Judith Wright. She graduated from RMIT with a Bachelor of Fine Art and followed that with a Graduate Diploma of Fine Art. She is a member of the English Society of Wood Engravers. Rosalind has exhibited extensively, and is collected widely by national and international institutions as well as private collections.

Prospectus

Every ‘Selected’ volume has a letterpress-printed prospectus that is sent to press supporters and other interested parties. If you would like to be on the mailing list for these, please contact me.

All volumes are signed by the artist and printer; a limited number early in the edition are signed by the poet.

Author: Nan McDonald
Artist: Jan Brown
Design & Production: Ampersand Duck

Printed 2007, released 2008

Colophon

Transmigration is the first volume in the Ampersand Duck fine press series, ‘Selected’.
Hand-set letterpress in Bodoni accompanied by relief prints on 280gsm Arches BFK grey paper, in a cased binding of ochre Buckram and relief-printed navy Wibalin with a dustjacket of acid-free acetate. 40pp. 240 x 163mm. Edition of 90.

About the contributors

Nan McDonald

Born in 1921, Nan McDonald also began her career writing poetry at Hornsby Girls’ High School where she contributed poems to the school magazine, twice winning the Ethel Curlewis prize for verse. Proceeding to the University of Sydney, she graduated with second-class honours in English.

In 1943 McDonald joined the editorial staff of Angus & Robertson Ltd. There she worked with such people as Alec Bolton, Beatrice Davis and Douglas Stewart. Recalled by Rosemary Dobson as ‘the best book editor in Australia’, she made a considerable – though largely unacknowledged – contribution to the publication of Australian fiction and history for some thirty years.

McDonald’s poetic output was small but highly regarded, with poems appearing mostly in Sydney journals from the 1940s to the 1960s. Her first collection, Pacific Sea (1947) won the first Grace Leven prize for poetry in 1947. Her poems appear in most modern anthologies, but critical perspective is still lacking.

McDonald spent much of her time in the Wollongong region, commuting to Sydney to work. She died of cancer in January 1974 at Mt Ousley.

The 14 poems in Transmigration revolve around themes of birds, sea, bushwalking and human interaction and interference with the environment.

Jan Brown AM

Jan Brown is a sculptor who sees drawing as an integral part of her work. She has a passionate interest in living forms, especially birds and animals.

Jan taught life drawing at the Canberra School of Art for many years, retiring as a Senior lecturer in 1987. Her initial training was as a part-time student at East Sydney Technical College, and later as a full-time student at Chelsea School of Art, under the direction of Henry Moore.

She was born in Sydney in 1922, and has travelled widely overseas, living in London for ten years and returning to London and Europe on a regular basis. Her home, since 1957, is Canberra, where she lives with her husband and family.

She has been actively involved with the promotion of the visual arts in Canberra and in 1992 was made an Order of Australia and also an Emeritus Fellow of the Australia Council. In 2005 she was honoured in the ACT International Women’s Day awards.

Jan’s drawings for Transmigration were not made for the book, but selected by her and the printer from her extensive drawing archives. Her drawings, many made in the same locations that Nan was writing about, were scanned and cast as photopolymer plates, then printed as embossments, slightly inked with transparent ink to darken the paper colour.

Jan Brown and Nan McDonald were exact contemporaries. They both cared deeply about the same issues, and frequented the same walking paths. They never knew each other.

This is the front of the 4pp DL-size prospectus for Transmigration
Every ‘Selected’ volume has a letterpress-printed prospectus that is sent to press supporters and other interested parties. If you would like to be on the mailing list for these, please contact me.