To Miss Wells

To Miss Wells is a letterpress-printed zine created as part of the Women Artist-Printers Portfolio Project, an initiative led by Senior Research Fellow Angie Butler at the Centre for Print Research, University of the West of England.

The project responds to the historically gender-biased traditions of the letterpress printing industry, still visible in contemporary UK print fairs and exhibitions. By centring women letterpress printers and amplifying their voices, the portfolio creates a platform for showcasing their work while foregrounding themes of allyship and solidarity.

To Miss Wells highlights the legacy of journalist, feminist, and civil rights campaigner Ida B. Wells, whose fearless anti-lynching activism in 19th-century USA remains deeply resonant today. The pamphlet, printed in letterpress with a screen-printed cover, draws upon a letter written by Frederick Douglass to Wells as a lens for exploring allyship and comradeship. Its text interlaces historical voices with references to contemporary podcasts, creating a dialogue between past and present asking how we might learn from histories of struggle in order to understand and act within today’s contexts.