  We use the exact instanton expansion to illustrate various string
characteristics of noncommutative gauge theory in two dimensions. We analyse
the spectrum of the model and present some evidence in favour of Hagedorn and
fractal behaviours. The decompactification limit of noncommutative torus
instantons is shown to map in a very precise way, at both the classical and
quantum level, onto fluxon solutions on the noncommutative plane. The
weak-coupling singularities of the usual Gross-Taylor string partition function
for QCD on the torus are studied in the instanton representation and its double
scaling limit, appropriate for the mapping onto noncommutative gauge theory, is
shown to be a generating function for the volumes of the principal moduli
spaces of holomorphic differentials. The noncommutative deformation of this
moduli space geometry is described and appropriate open string interpretations
are proposed in terms of the fluxon expansion.
