Sometimes called the 27th letter of the alphabet, the & – or the ampersand (meaning ‘and’ by itself) – has long provided artists, typographers and designers with the opportunity to flourish and strut their stuff. Such a curious sign also attracts a fair share of punnery and fun – from Bruce Rogers’ “Ampers&paper” to Jennifer Farrell’s The Well-Traveled Ampersand in which she shapes ampersands with dozens of typographic ornaments to create characters matching the styles of her favourite typographers and their cities.
Paul A. Bennett et al., Diggings from Many Ampersandhogs (1936). The Typophiles was a US-based society of bibliophiles, talented typographers and designers, and incorrigible punsters. The binding of so many varied types of paper (including sandpaper) in such a small volume is a feat in itself.
Peter Criddle, Commend Me to the Ampersand (2018)
In this print from Jennifer Farrell’s The Well-Traveled Ampersand (2015-17), she has used typographic fleurons, dashes, ornaments and and several small train carriages to capture Edward Johnston’s ampersand from the typeface designed for the London Underground.
Russell Maret, Hungry Dutch (2016-20). Subscription to the creation of the Hungry Dutch typeface earned its sponsors a matrix, sort and pattern on completion. For the Books On Books Collection, the ampersand was the obvious choice.
Andrew Morrison, Ampersand& (2007). A collector of sets of woodcut type and sorts, Morrison could not deny the ampersands (wormholes and all) their own type book.
Bruce Rogers, Peter Piper’s Practical Principles of Plain & Perfect Pronunciation (1936) Johnson e. 2961. For Diggings from Many Ampersandhogs (see above) ,Rogers created a reduced version of this set of pages. In both cases, he really did use sandpaper.
That Company Called If, Alphabooks – Ampersand – & (2015). Most altered books aim higher than the decorative, but no celebration of the ampersand in book art would be complete without this carving of a volume from the Readers’ Digest library.
Books On Books 