When This You See

This book features When This You See..., a 1996-99 series of thirty-one embroidered samplers by contemporary American artist Elaine Reichek. Traditionally, samplers framed truisms, homilies, and lessons within decorative patterns and motifs. Reichek replaces these familiar sayings with witty combinations of quotations from mythology, literature, science, art history, and popular culture. Most of the quotations relate to the arts of weaving, knitting, or embroidery. The astonishing results operate on myriad levels: as social critique, as commentary on the relations between the sexes, as a challenge to the traditional definitions of art itself. Punctuating the sequence of samplers are embroideries inspired by works of modernism or contemporary art that resonate with Reichek's themes; with her renditions of these works, Reichek challenges the austerity of "high" art with humor and sophistication.