how we got here

We’re so excited to see the positive response to WORD 2026. Beyond just saving the date, we think that it’s important to talk about how we got to this place. 

Why not hamilton?

For many of us, traveling to Hamilton Wood Type Museum for their annual Wayzgoose was our routine every November. Since 2009 the Hamilton Wayzgoose has been an important location in the midwest for printers to gather as a community. 

Last year, our community became aware of a series of harmful actions by the Hamilton board. There was Ibé Crawley’s cancelled residency, the cancellation of other artists’ residencies and exhibitions, stepping back from progressive programming, and the mistreatment of staff. When questioned by members of the community, the Hamilton board responded with silence and a lack of transparency. More unsatisfying attempts to communicate with the board led to a boycott of the 2025 Hamilton Wayzgoose, a loss of major funding support and eventually a divestment from the museum by much of the letterpress and print communities. 

What’s the “hamfam?”

Under the banner of WeAreHamFam, printers around the country were unified in pushing for change at Hamilton. The organizers of a book arts exhibition planned for the 2025 Wayzgoose were early to cancel programming; printers from around the country shared information on social media; SGCI publicly aligned themselves with HamFam; Windgate Foundation canceled a $10 million endowment. Jenn Graves and Desiree Aspiras helped focus the community’s anger and kept us informed by creating and maintaining the WeAreHamFam website, initiating a petition that received 526 signatures, and promoting a postcard writing initiative.

Throughout the entire experience the Hamilton staff worked under increasingly challenging conditions. The staff (Stephanie Carpenter, Abbie Diaz, Jen Anne, Gina Korakin) worked in both quiet, and in the case of Abbie, often public support for our efforts to champion their work and push the museum towards accountability and change. 

Why chicago?

In November 2025, with the Hamilton Wayzgoose cancelled, several printers still made the trip  to Chicago to be in community with each other. We visited a new print shop, Midwest Ephemera, and did our traditional visit to Starshaped Press. Printers from around the country joined together on Zoom to laugh, joke, share stories and be together.

In that spirit we wanted to create an opportunity for printers to be together in Chicago in the first week of November.

Our idea is to follow the lead of the 2025 gathering and expand it to welcome more people interested in letterpress and being together with other printers this time of year. We want to create space for community, learning, and sharing. That’s the spirit of WORD.