The Art Institute of Chicago, 2025
Purchase from the Art Institute Museum Shop
Available to booksellers from Yale University Press
Throughout human history, textiles have brought people together—often as part of organized rituals—to mourn and mark the occasion of death and transition; to remember and memorialize lost loved ones; to resist oppressive systems; to heal from personal and collective traumas; to care for family and community; and to maintain ancestral, communal, and cultural connections. Drawing on the rich collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the book presents new curatorial and conservation research on around 80 objects from antiquity to today, from across the world. They include burial shrouds, wrapping cloths, masks, garments, coffin covers, funeral hangings, mourning and mending samplers, resurrection tapestries, memorial cloths, screens, ceremonial hangings, blankets, carrying cloths, talismanic textiles, and fragments.
This publication is the first to explore the role of textiles in helping humans across cultures negotiate loss and grief. Essays by leading scholars, conservators, and contemporary textile artists provide varied, in-depth perspectives on select objects and explore the key themes of death and mourning, transition of realms, care and repair, and resistance and survival. This artist-driven publication foregrounds the diverse voices of contemporary practitioners, making it of keen interest not only to art historians, conservators, textile experts but also to artists, educators, and enthusiasts.
Edited by Isaac Facio, Nneka Kai, L Vinebaum, and Anne Wilson
Contributions by Jerry Bleem, Valerie Cassel Oliver, Gustavo Da Silva, Isaac Facio, Wafa Ghnaim, Jen Chen-su Huang, Nneka Kai, Cristian Koepfli, Alipio Melo, Sarah Molina, María José Murillo, Lucinda Pelton, Sharbreon Plummer, Jenni Sorkin, Barbara Teller Ornelas, Lynda Teller Pete, Cybele Tom, L Vinebaum, Melinda Watt, Danitza Willka, Anne Wilson, and Folayemi Wilson
224 pages, 9 x 10 1/2 in.
154 color illustrations
Hardcover
ISBN: 978-0-300-284089
