Fiberarts Design Book 7

ed. Susan Mowery Kieffer

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The editors of Fiberarts Magazine have selected 550 works of art from 6000 applications, including quilts, embroideries, tapestry, felt, paper, sculptures and wearable art.

Review

This book series, which publishes judged submissions by textile artists, began in 1980. The 7th edition attracted 6,000 applicants (compared with 5,500 previously) from 30 countries. Five hundred and fifty works of art by artists from 24 countries were accepted for this book, most of which (73%) come from the USA. The additional pieces originate from Canada (29 pieces), Australia (19), Great Britain (16), Denmark (10), Germany and Japan (6 each), the Netherlands and New Zealand (5 each), Latvia (4), Finland and South Africa (3), Lithuania and Poland (2), and one work each from Belgium, Switzerland, Czech, Spain, France, Italy, Korea, Norway, Russia and Sweden. The selection is divided into eight chapters: quilts, needlework, paper & felt, tapestry, fiber sculpture & installations, two dimensions, wearables, diversions and surface design. The chapter on "Basketry" is new. Equally as implausible as this categorisation is the classification of the illustrations, which are each accompanied by an extremely brief statement by the artist and/or a description of the construction of the work. The attraction of this book series is surely in the plethora of illustrated works. In a sense the participating artists find in it an answer to the question of "How do I appear in comparison to others?" But one has to allow for the fact that the composition of the jury and the number of submissions meant that US-influenced aesthetics predominate, followed by an Anglo-Saxon dominance. The plethora of information is at the expense of a critical overview, and in the long run, abundance of course also leads to fatigue. In many cases the interested reader would like to find out more about the work and artist than just one colour illustration, one explanatory sentence and the artist's name. What is missing, for example, are the addresses of the artists, who are unfortunately not contactable through this book. Notwithstanding all possible criticism of this book series it should be stated that nowhere is there a better overview of the respective state of textile art throughout the world, unless one subscribes to several specialist publications in different languages, which would provide continual information.

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