A Pressing Call: 500 Years of Women Printing

A Pressing Call: Five Centuries of Women Printing features the stories of women who have worked in the print trade in a variety of roles including as publishers, print shop proprietors, typesetters and compositors, and booksellers. The history of women’s contributions to book production has been obscured by the societal constraints placed on women’s labor, and they were often hidden behind the names of men or corporate bodies. If one knows how and where to look, however, it becomes clear that thousands of books were printed by women.

This exhibition features the work of women who led printing houses in the sixteenth century, such as Charlotte Guillard, Yolande Bonhomme and Katherine Gerlach, as well as modern and contemporary printers and book artists, including Emily Faithfull, Virginia Woolf and Tia Blassingame. Visit the exhibition to learn the stories of women drawn to the printing professions, from its infancy in the early modern period to the present day.