One of Ouvrard's specialities has been the provision of portfolios for limited edition livres d'artiste. Following two decades of experience as a production binder he was fortunate to start his own atelier at a time when the publisher Erta was beginning to produce the first modern artist's books in Quebec. The problem for the binder in such work is to produce a protective shell that announces the treasure inside without overwhelming it. Ouvrard accomplishes this sometimes with the utmost simplicity such as on Jean-Marie Faber's Pour Ętre, issued in a blue cloth portfolio with a small inlaid paper illustration positioned above the silver-stamped title. Or, Ouvrard can produce a book object, such as for Richard Raymond's Hotel, which features a three-dimensional imitation stone case reproducing the entry to the hotel with opening wooden doors.

Ouvrard shows a special ability to integrate his own skilful work with that of other artists to produce a subtle and harmonious product. For example, on Roch Carrier's La guerre, yes sir! he integrates an elegant bronze medallion by Charles Daudelin into his own binding of full brown suede. Like other artists of great accomplishment he is comfortable working with an astonishing variety of materials: the usual paper and standard leathers, of course, but also fibers, birch-bark, corrugated plastic, plexiglass, enamel, aluminum, bronze, copper, silver, woven cloth, batik, silk, velvet, embroidered fabric, wood, walrus ivory, laminated leather, seal-skin, salmon-skin, frog-skin, mouse pelt, pressed leaves, and paint. You have to see it to believe it. It is his use of paint that sets Ouvrard apart from other binders whose normal means of highlighting their work is gold tooling. Although he uses gold tooling and gilding as well as the less-used silver tooling, Ouvrard prefers paint as his first choice of expression, and says he could have been a painter. In fact he is a painter.