Elaine Reichek

For "At Home and in the World," her exhibition at the Palais de Beaux-Arts in Brussels, Elaine Reichek explores and innovates on the tradition of the sampler--a didactic tool used in learning embroidery that can often be a work of art in itself--by recasting works of visual art--including pieces by Georges Seurat, Andy Warhol, Lawrence Weiner, Jenny Holzer, and Barbara Krueger--as well as literary quotations--from "Moby Dick," Ovid, Tennyson, Kierkegaard, Woolf and A.S. Byatt, among others--into the form of samplers. Working in a subversive postmodern tradition that includes both the artwork of Raymond Pettibon and the literary essays of Susan Howe, Reichek rereads high art through the prism of domestic craft, challenging the patriarchal and modernist assumptions that still permeate our culture. Uniquely and cleverly designed, this volume documents Reichek's work in full color.

This book documents Elaine Reichek's exhibition "Between the Needle and the Book" at McClain Gallery, Houston in early 2020. This two-part show introduces Reichek's five-decade career like a pair of bookends, juxtaposing her most recent text-based embroideries with sewn paintings and fabric works from the 1970s.