Artist and poet José Francisco Borges (J. Borges) was born in 1935 in the village of Bezerros, Pernambuco state, in Northeastern Brazil. Today Borges is Brazil’s best-known folk artist working in the woodcut medium, and his work has been exhibited all over the world. But he comes out of a long tradition of folk poet/artists who publish their own work in the form of small (generally about 6″ by 9″) cheap chap-books or pamphlets written in verse, known as folhetos. They are also known as literatura de cordel after the way vendors sell them in the marketplace, hanging over a string. Working with just a knife and a chunk of wood, Mr. Borges proves that ”low-level technology often yields very powerful, moving and sophisticated results” [...]

Aloísio Magalhães, while still attending law school in Recife (the capital of Pernambuco), had already begun to show his fascination with graphic arts. Coincidentally, a famous cousin of Magalhães, the renowned Brazilian poet João Cabral de Melo Neto, moved to Recife at that time. This cousin strongly encouraged the two young artists to open their own private print shop. Magalhães became excited about the idea of setting up a print shop and they sought other former friends from the university who were also involved in literature and graphic arts. Among the main names of those who founded O Gráfico Amador in 1954, it is worth mentioning Ariano Suassuna, José Laurenio, and Orlando da Costa Ferreira.

Aloísio Magalhães took his first steps in the field of graphic design took place while he was still attending law school in Recife. he set up, together with some friends, a modest print shop called O Gráfico Amador that, during the eight subsequent years that it was operating, published 27 books, 3 sets of fliers, 2 bulletins and a theater program [...]

Vicente do Rego Monteiro (Recife, Pernambuco, 1899 – idem, 1970). Painter, sculptor, draughtsman, illustrator, graphic artist. Began his artistic studies in 1908, accompanying his sister, Fedora do Rego Monteiro (1889 – 1975) on courses at the National School of Fine Arts (Enba) in Rio de Janeiro.

In 1964, together with Adão Pinheiro (1938- ), José Tavares and Guita Charifker (1936- ), João Câmara founded the Ateliê Coletivo da Ribeira [Collective Studio of Ribeira], and in 1965, the Ateliê + Dez [Studio +10], both in Olinda. In 1974, he established a lithography studio which subsequently became the Guaianases Engraving Workshop, incorporated in 1995 into the Visual Arts Laboratory of the Federal University of Pernambuco [...]