Jessica Peterson

Jessica directs curricular collaboration, programming and printing operations at Common Press, the University of Pennsylvania’s letterpress and book arts research studio. Working with many partners across the university, she builds community-based, hands-on educational opportunities to explore the cultural, historical, and technological significance of letterpress printing, typography and bookbinding.

Jessica’s experience in printing comes from over fifteen years of job printing at The Southern Letterpress, her company and studio. Previously, she worked to establish community publishing opportunities in the Gulf South with Antenna, a non-profit in New Orleans and as a resident artist at Ringling College of Art, Longwood University, Florida State University, and Town of Gordo, Alabama. Her artists books, focusing on under-published American narratives, are collected in special collections libraries across the country.

Jessica holds a MFA in Book Arts from The University of Alabama (2009) and a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (1999).