Judith Copithorne, creator of ‘poem-drawings,’ helped redefine what literature could be

Judith Copithorne’s career in experimental literary arts began with her contributing to underground magazines and slinging prints at bohemian arts markets in Vancouver. A curious young man once purchased one of Ms. Copithorne’s “far out” visual poems, only for him to return with his disapproving mother to demand his money back. What so offended this young man’s mother? Likely Ms. Copithorne’s psychedelic aesthetic that resonated with the spirited idealism and anti-establishment politics of the Sixties counterculture. Judith Alexandra Copithorne, who died on May 15 at the age of 85, was a feminist, poet, visual artist, dancer and community organizer who rejected the norms of literary publishing and instead entrusted her work to small-press and micro-press publishers while seeking broader forms of inclusion in the cultural landscape, especially for women.