06/05/2026
Join us tomorrow for our First Saturday Open House (6/6) and print your own copy of the "Declaration of Independence". Also, check all the other great activities we have going on tomorrow below!
Open House Activities:
12-3pm - Judith Kornett will be demoing her relief printing and offering a special Make & Take activity of her lino cut blocks
2pm - "America Punctuated: Contemporary Responses to 250 Years of America" Exhibition Remarks from Executive Director, Casey Smith and participating artists
12-6pm - Print "The American's Creed" by William Tyler Page on our Chandler & Price Platen Press
12-6pm - Print the "Declaration of Independence" on our historic 219 Vandercook - suggested donation up to $20
12-6pm - Lithography demo by Scip Barnhart
12-6pm - Pages from Michael DeMattia's "Color Frederick" will be available to color in
Exhibition Description:
There’s a big difference between “America!” and “America?”. In 1962, Martin Speckter, an advertising executive and hobbyist letterpress printer in New York, invented the interrobang, a mark of punctuation that combines the question mark and the exclamation point. A good definition might be “excited disbelief.”
Interro comes from the Latin “to question” and “bang” is printshop slang for an exclamation mark. Speckter wanted a single mark of punctuation to express both excitement and curiosity. The 1960s was the Golden Age of the interrobang; it was even featured on a 1968 Re*****on typewriter, but in subsequent decades it fell out of favor.
Maybe we currently find ourselves in a political and cultural situation that calls for the interrobang. As we acknowledge the USA’s 250th birthday, we have plenty to celebrate. We also have plenty to question and criticize. This is itself a trait that America has been known for. Likewise, printers and book artists have a long tradition of active engagement at the intersection of culture and politics. Frederick Book Arts Center’s summer exhibition “America Punctuated” features a critical engagement with the
contradictions of what America means in 2026, 250 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Running from June 6th to August 23rd.
