Woven Works

Once it was important to weave cloth to clothe the body, and even though machines can now do that faster and cheaper, handweavers are still at it. They weave now for its own sake - to clothe the soul. Woven Works traces the techniques and motifs used by 36 contemporary fiber artists back to their origins in the crafts of Africa, the Middle East, Scandinavia, Peru, Bolivia, and Japan. By comparing the ancient and the modern pieces shown in this book, it is possible to see how a certain knotting technique or a particular border decoration done thousands of years ago recapitulated in the modern work. But these contemporary artists are by no means inhibited by their ties to tradition. They weave seemingly anything they can get their hands on: metal, rubber, synthetic fiber, color Xerox, and the hair from practically any animal you can name. Suddenly weaving seems to have much to do with painting and sculpture - an art in its own right, done for its own sake.