Before photocopiers took over copy-making, messier, cheaper simpler duplicators ruled the world. Patented in 1881- the Gestetner revolutionised the office making printing easy, cheap and widely accessible.
Its simplicity and economy put it at the heart of the community where schools, clubs and organisations churned out reams of pamphlets, weekly bulletins and newsletters. But behind closed doors the Gestetner sat just as solidly at the epicentre of counter culture as a DIY tool for fanzine writers, beat poets, anarchists and agitators. Hovering in the hazy world between counter culture and the truly clandestine, it helped to foster freedom and express the shock of the new.
2021 marks the 140th Anniversary of the Gestetner Duplicator and to celebrate, artists, printmakers, musicians and producers are invited to come together and create a virtual gallery of sounds and images.