The Quilts of Gee’s Bend
2002
Published by Tinwood Books29.5 x 33.5 cm190 pagesHardbackISBN 0965376648
The Quilts of Gee’s Bend was published on the occasion of an exhibition jointly organised by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Tinwood Alliance, and illuminates three themes in American quilts: quilts as sophisticated design, quilts as vessels of cultural survival and continuity, and quilts as portraits of women’s identities.
Through contribution from John Beardsley, William Arnett, Paul Arnett, Jane Livingston, Alvia Wardlow and Peter Marzio, the book demonstrates the way in which The Gee’s Bend Quiltmakers brought a uniquely local flavour to the one visual tradition widely practiced by Americans of every social class, ethnicity, religion, and region. They made an American pastime the literal fabric of their lives – an art that binds the individual’s imagination to family, friends, neighborhood, and the greater community.