Cathy DeForest
Ashland, Oregon

Cathy DeForest is a Northwest book artist who integrates printmaking, photography, and mixed media into her artist books and letterpress broadsides. Cathy has been teaching and mentoring in one form or another since 1968. She has sold over 3,000 letterpress broadsides of her work and her artist books have been exhibited and collected nationally. Highlights of her past 19 years as a book artist include: founding two galleries, teaching in Italy, and creating Poets On the Loose. Through her multi-layered works, she seeks to evoke the depth and mystery of the human experience.

Website: gallerydeforest.com

Wake up, the World is on Fire!, 2009

At age 93, the iconic Lawrence Ferlinghetti has a lot to say about how we can embrace the horizon that awaits us. Wake up, the World is on Fire! is a letterpress broadside featuring lines from Ferlinghetti's prophetic book, Poetry As Insurgent Art. The work, signed by Ferlinghetti, includes a photograph of the poet. The broadside was collaboratively designed and printed by Cathy DeForest, Susan Rouzie, and Derek Pyle while terrorism raged in various parts of the world and the Arab Spring and the Occupy Movement were formulating. Ferlinghetti's words offer sanity and guidance for a world gone wild. Designed and printed by Cathy DeForest, Susan Rouzie, and Derek Pyle.

Dimensions: 11 x 17 inches, 28 x 43 centimeters

Letterpress printed in three colors. Photograph of Ferlinghetti by Chris Felver, also letterpress printed.