As part of its mandate to celebrate historic and contemporary textile expressions, the Textile Museum of Canada has produced many publications and catalogues, covering a diverse range of exhibitions and textile-related subjects.
Kai Chan: A Spider's Logic
A 35-year retrospective documenting the work of Toronto-based artist Kai Chan, A Spider's Logic brings together key artworks, many of which have never been seen together before. Chan’s work is critically received equally within the discipline of textiles and the visual arts in general. 'A master of the unremarkable', Chan has successfully altered the gene pool of what constitutes sculpture and what constitutes textiles. The essays presented here bring together different perspectives and responses to Chan's work. Sarah Quinton, Shannon Anderson and Charles Guilbert's texts are insightful, attentive to his evolving concerns, and offer an in-depth reading of a lifelong practice. |
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Back to TopFaces & Mazes: Lia Cook
Faces & Mazes is an exhibition of unique electronic Jacquard loom hand weavings Lia Cook developed over the past six years in her studio in Oakland, California. In this current work, she examines both human and doll faces, embedded in a lattice-like weave structure. Cook is an artist whose depth and originality are explored in the essays written for this catalogue. The work flows from Cook's passion for extending our understanding of the interconnectedness of cloth as a medium of expression and a tactile experience. |
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Suzanne Swanne Textil: Danish Modern
This retrospective publication documents the weavings and textile installations of Suzanne Swannie. Since the 1970s the Danish-born artist has created functional textiles, tapestries and large architectural installations for private and public environments. Both the woven works and the constructions display the “Danish Modern” principle of repetition of modular units as a means of generating surfaces and structures, with a typical emphasis on rich colour harmonies. Swannie moves adroitly between industry, craft and the art world, gaining from each, apologizing to none. The authors situate Swannie’s work in relation to historical modernism and provide a chronology of the artist’s 40-year career. |
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When Women Rule the World: Judy Chicago in Thread and She Will Always Be Younger Than Us: Orly Cogan, Wednesday Lupypciw, Cat Mazza, Gillian Strong and Ginger Brooks Takahashi
When Women Rule the World: Judy Chicago in Thread surveys some of Judy Chicago’s most engaging work in textiles, spanning her career from 1971 to the present. The interpretation of these works reveals not only the tenacity of her practice, but also the thoughtful development of her political and aesthetic strategies through the creation of the Birth Project (1980-1985), the Holocaust Project (1985-1993) and Resolutions: A Stitch in Time (1994-2000) and What if Women Ruled the World (2008). She Will Always Be Younger Than Us profiles five artists who take this notion to heart are profiled alongside Chicago, underscoring her ongoing and unmistakable influence and creating an intergenerational dialogue with Chicago’s most recent work. |
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A Terrible Beauty
The Textile Museum of Canada, the Dennos Museum Center at Northwestern Michigan College and the Musée d'art de Joliette are proud to present the first solo catalogue of Jennifer Angus, a multidisciplinary artist who is also a teacher, writer and curator. This catalogue documents three remarkable installations in the series A Terrible Beauty: "Creature Comforts," at the Textile Museum of Canada from November 26, 2005 through May 14, 2006; "Compulsion and Repulsion," at the Dennos Museum Center from December 10, 2006 through March 4, 2007; and "To Have and to Hold," at the Musée d'art de Joliette from September 23, 2007 through January 6, 2008. |
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Close to You
Featuring the artwork of Ai Kijima, Scott Kildall, Allyson Mitchell, Mark Newport and and Michèle Provost Close to You examines the use of idioms and images in popular culture. Often viewed solely as a means of self-expression for the artist, crafts also offer insight into social ideologies and critique mass media systems. This exhibition catalogue includes rich visual imagery accompanying an essay by curator Sarah Quinton, with a foreword by Peter Dykhuis. See Close to You at the Textile Museum of Canada from June 4 to October 12, 2008. Featuring the artwork of Ai Kijima, Scott Kildall, Allyson Mitchell, Mark Newport. |
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The Blues Resource Guide
The Blues Resource Guide explores the history, methodologies and social context behind textiles featured in The Blues exhibition. The exhibition and related guide features textiles from West Africa, East Asia and Canada with works by six contemporary artists whose techniques are embedded in concepts of blue. Designed for teachers and life-long learners, the Resource Guide includes a comprehensive set of activities, both research-based and hands-on, that allow you to learn by doing. |
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Wandering Weavers: Nomadic Traditions of Asia
The Textile Museum of Canada holds a wide variety of traditional textiles from Asia and Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey. Through these textiles, the author draws a picture of traditional nomadic life, a life that is gradually vanishing as a result of rapid social and economic changes. The textiles discussed include a broad range of items made by nomadic people of Central and West Asia: Turkmen, Kazakh and Kirghiz, Uzbek, Baluch and Shahsevan, Bakhtiari, Kurds and Qashqai. The rugs, tents, clothing and animal gear show various textile techniques. |
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Thor Hansen: Crafting a Canadian
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Fibremath Resource Guide - SOLD OUT
The Fibremath Resource Guide is a collection of textile activities for use by teachers and parents, based on the K-8 Mathematics and Visual Arts curricula. Each activity has been tested repeatedly in the Textile Museum of Canada with classes of visiting schoolchildren, and is accompanied by diagrams, blackline masters and suggested resources. Six images of textiles in our collection are also included as transparencies for overhead projection. |
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Boys with Needles
Catalogue of an exhibition of works by four male artists who use fibre to express their sexual philosophies and to incite dialogue about the role of homosexuality in religion, technology, media and the arts. Two essays elucidate the intentions and ramifications of the artistic production of David Grenier, Neil MacInnis, Thomas Roach and Patrick Traer. |
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Cloth & Clay: Communicating Culture
An exploration of two thousand years of Mexican, Central and South American culture and history. Ceramics and textiles, both ancient and contemporary, are featured in the interactive, image-rich environment of a CD-ROM. Includes a full-colour booklet presenting a curatorial essay and index. Of particular use to the teacher and researcher but accessible to school-children. |
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Comfort Zones: Textiles in the Canadian Landscape
A collection of textile icons of Canadian identity, created to adapt and identify with the Canadian environment. Features the work of six contemporary Canadian artists alongside traditional textiles from across the nation. |
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On Growth and Form: Textiles and the Engineering of Nature
An exhibition of textiles and contemporary technology focusing on the theme of artificially constructed nature. Catalogue includes the essay “Making Nature� by Phillip Beesley. Participants include Kenneth Snelson, Ann Richards, Sophie Roët, Chuck Hoberman and others. |
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Wildlife: A Field Guide to the Post-Natural
Five artists use textiles to emphasize the interaction of nature with technology and culture. Each artist hints at the self-conscious irony of a species torn between its capacity to make reality according to its own designs and the undeniable necessity of finding harmony with those already in existence. Catalogue features text and photographs of each artist's work. |
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Celebrating Virtue: Prestige Costume and Fabrics of Late Imperial China
Garments and textiles dating from the 17th to early 20th century that demonstrate the pageantry and opulence of China's last Imperial age. |
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Janet Morton: Wool Work
Through her juxtaposition of the traditional techniques of knitting with contemporary subject matter, Janet Morton demonstrates the flexibility and richness of textiles as a contemporary art making medium. Catalogue includes images from the Woolwork exhibition, as well as the installation Cozy. |
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Felt: Social History, Technical Processes and Artists' Projects
Focused on mechanically manufactured felt and its production and use in a Canadian context. This exhibition catalogue includes new artwork created by local contemporary artists and an outline of the social history of felt in Canada - from the fur trade to popular culture. Catalogue includes a felt insert. |
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Gather Beneath the Banner: Political and Religious Banners of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union 1877-1932
Twenty-one embroidered and painted textile banners made by members of the WCTU. The catalogue discusses the social and cultural significance of these artifacts in both historical and contemporary terms. Includes archival photographs. |
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Told and Retold: An Inquiry About Hair
A collaborative sound installation by Anne Wilson and A.B. Forster, where human experiences of hair loss, both voluntary and involuntary, have been voiced. Catalogue includes essays by Sarah Quinton and Jennifer Fisher. |
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