Jacky Winter is delighted to present Makeready Readymade, the inaugural solo exhibition of make-ready print sheets from the library of Stuart Geddes.

“Make-ready sheets” are sheets of paper that a printer uses to get the colour right on a print run. They can be run through a press at the start of a job to soak up excess ink, or at the end of a run when ink is low, so as not to waste fresh sheets of paper. Make-readies can be re-used several times, resulting in different and disparate images and text layering up on the same single sheet.

Presenting an archive of make-ready sheets, sourced from a local offset printer and from the archives of Stuart’s own Risograph-based printing press, Makeready Readymade is an exhibition about the unexpected, accidental beauty of printed waste. It is about being obsessed with ‘printerliness’ of ink on paper and it is entertained by the idea of exhibiting, and in the process re-valuing, a waste product.

Makeready Readymade is also accompanied by a limited edition book created specifically for the the exhibition, which combines offset, Risograph and letterpress printing. It is available in a limited edition of 250.

Stuart Geddes is the Co-founder and director of Chase & Galley graphic design studio, whose projects have included the re-design of ‘Dumbo Feather’ magazine, ‘Meanjin’ literary journal, ‘The Melbourne Design Guide’, campaign design for Rooftop Cinema 2008/09 & 2009/10, signage for Metropolis books and music and design of the ‘Architectural Design Research Journal’. Stuart Geddes is also the Founder/Director of A Small Press, co-founder of ‘Is Not Magazine’ (2005-08) and continues to lecture at RMIT and Monash Universities.