America Punctuated!? Contemporary Responses to 250 Years of America

Open House at Frederick Book Arts Center

Opening June 6th 12pm - 6pm - current gallery exhibit

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 Remington 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.

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 Iron Hand Press

12-6pm - Lithography demo by Scip Barnhart

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