Ampersand Duck is a private press.

It follows the classic definition of a private press in that things are printed and produced to please the printer, not dictated to by commercial pressures (although making money from them would be wonderful). This has been extended to suit the new century in that &Duck also produces digital publications, artist's books, zines and other assorted flippery.

As a reader, designer and letterpress printer, I'm making the sort of books I've always loved: fine press books, hand-printed, hand-bound and not too frilly or expensive. My main inspiration and influence for these is the excellent work produced by Alec Bolton and his Canberra-based Brindabella Press.

I do not read unsolicited manuscripts. I am not that sort of press or publisher.

To see what is currently available, visit the Duckshop.

To see some of the printing, binding and design commissions I've undertaken, go here.

To read more about letterpress and bookbinding, go here.

Transmigration

MADE

Transmigration
Poetry by Nan McDonald, drawings by Jan Brown. Completed 2008.
40pp, hand-set letterpress and embossed drawings, case-bound by hand with a hand-set letterpress-printed cover. Edition 90.
Available now!
Go to the Duckshop for more details.

pr0n coktales
Chapzine. Completed in 2007.
A chapbook of spam, hand-set in letterpress in black and a garish orange prawny colour.Chapbooks are traditionally 8pp single-section booklets.
Available now!
Go to the Duckshop for more details.

Wanted: John Howard, for crimes of...
Broadsheet. Completed in 2007.
Hooray! Completely outmoded now, but a fabulous souvenir of days gone by...
Hand-set metal and woodtype. Handsewn.
Still available!
Go to the Duckshop for more details.

Snatches: a mystery in six parts
Collaboration with graffiti master Byrd. Completed 2008.
Unique artists' book produced for a themed group exhibition.

 

MAKING

Poems to Hold or Let Go
Poetry by Rosemary Dobson, wood engravings by Rosalind Atkins.
56pp, letterpress (using photopolymer plates) and relief prints, case-bound by hand with a hand-set letterpress-printed cover. Edition c. 200. Completion date with any luck is mid-to-late 2008.

 

PLANNING

Books to Hold or Let Go
An exhibition of fine bindings using Rosemary Dobson's Poems to Hold or Let Go as the common text. Scheduled to show at Craft ACT in May 2009.

Places
Poetry by Bernard Hardy, woodcuts by John Pratt. Chapbook.

Collaborations with:
Garth and Katharine Nix (2009)
Jordie Albiston (2009/10)
Tracy Crisp
Rosalind Atkins

(dates only supplied if notions have progressed that far)
pr0n coktales arsehattery
snatches