Mary-Martha Tripeny
"Superheroes"

Showing March 15 – April 4, 2025​

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Mary-Martha Tripeny is a bookmaker, letterpress artist, and disability activist from Salt Lake City, Utah. She has been studying paper making, and book arts for the past ten years.

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The inspiration for this piece is her son Fred who is non-verbal and suffers from hydrocephalus and cerebral palsy. It is for the vast community of people with severe disabilities who often find themselves without a voice.

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Title: “Superheroes”

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This letterpress mural recognizes and celebrates the humanity of all those who live with misunderstanding surrounding their differences. It seeks to remind others that we must look for the positive gifts and attributes of others rather than question or judge our differences.

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The foreground is printed on a letter press using wood type. The font is called Star and is 86 point size. I chose this to convey the dynamic quality of the people for which this piece was created.

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The background was printed using a 36 point metallic type font called Italic Bembo; a font that conveys the beauty of the human stroke of a pen.

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Special thanks to the University of Utah Book Arts faculty for allowing me access to the book lab and for their generous support of this project.

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Also, thanks to my son Fred and my husband Patrick.

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