Ruth Lingen
American, b. 1958; MFA 1984
Lives and works in New York, New York
Poetry by Edward Hirsch; illustrations by Glenn Goldberg, Ruth Lingen, and John Bartlett; binding by Mark Tomlinson; etchings printed by Julia D’Amario; text printed by Ruth Lingen; stencils cut by Shannon Kelley
Letterpress with etchings and pochoir in watercolor and gouache, stencils and case binding
Picture Books, New York, New York
Edition of 30 and 9 artist proofs
Illustrations by Donald Traver, text by W. Mullinger Higgins
Letterpress with pochoir and linocuts on archival cardboard
Pooté Press, New York, New York
Edition of 50
The text is adapted from The Earth by W. Mullinger Higgins, which was published in 1839.
In high school, Ruth Lingen fell in love with letterforms as she painted billboards along Interstate 90 in rural South Dakota. She calls her printmaking professor (and UW alumnus) John Risseeuw her mentor at the University of South Dakota, where she focused on printmaking, made her first books and earned a BFA. After a year as a commercial silk-screen printer, she started graduate school at the University of Wisconsin—Madison and assisted Walter Hamady in the type shop. When Hamady went on sabbatical, Joe Wilfer stepped in to teach, and Lingen became Wilfer’s assistant. She collaborated with a number of UW students, and after receiving her MFA in 1984, she moved to New York City to work with with Wilfer, who had become her new mentor. Over the years she has created artists’ books and print projects with artists including Jim Dine, Kiki Smith, and Jessica Stockholder, and poets such as Robert Creeley, Edward Hirsch, and Jeremy Sigler. As the director of Pace Paper, Lingen helped artists articulate concepts in mediums they had not previously used. “We have explored so many different creative processes in papermaking that we are taking that language and really pushing it,” she says. A printer, printmaker, and typographer, she publishes books under her imprints Pootë Press and Picture Books.
