Frances Butler

Frances C. Butler (born 1940 in St. Louis, Missouri) is an American book artist and educator. Butler received her B.A. in History at the University of California, Berkeley in 1961, her M.A. in History at Stanford University in 1963, and a second M.A. in Design at UC Berkeley in 1966. She was a professor at UC Berkeley from 1968–70, and began teaching at UC Davis in 1970. She ran Goodstuffs Handprinted Fabric from 1973–79, and co-founded Poltroon Press with Alastair Johnston in 1975. Poltroon Press The Poltroon Press was one of several influential small presses in the San Francisco Bay Area, along with Rebis Press (Betsy Davids) and Five Trees Press (Kathleen Walkup, Jamie Robles, Cheryl Miller, etc.), which began their publishing and teaching activities during the mid-1970s. Minnesota Center for Book Arts Butler was the first visiting lecturer at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts and "spoke of book arts in terms of re-defining tradition," challenging the center to adopt a more forward-thinking mission. Selected solo & group exhibitions 1981 Diagrams of Natural Energy, Meyer Breier Weiss, San Francisco New Dryads (Are Ready for Your Call), Piater Brattinga Gallery, Amsterdam International Artists' Books Show, Art Institute of Chicago 1979 Art for Wearing, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art 1978 American Illustration: 1800 to the Present, Oakland Art Museum 1977 The Object as Poet, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C. 1976