Textile Practices - Forty female artists and designers from Europe
By Stephanie Kahnau (ed.)

TEXTILE PRACTICES: FORTY FEMALE ARTISTS AND DESIGNERS FROM EUROPE

Textiles are one of humankind’s oldest forms of cultural expression, and women have been and remain pivotal players in this multifaceted and exacting field. In Textile Practices, Stephanie Kahnau presents forty outstanding female textile designers of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries and their individual methods of engaging with this fascinating medium at the intersection of craft, design and art.

Women and textiles are often thought of as being inextricably linked – usually based on the social ascription of roles. Yet at the same time, textiles are an artistic means of articulation: sensitive, political, defiant. Ever since the 1960s in particular, textile arts have become increasingly recognised and subsequently established as an art form in their own right, with female artists blowing apart traditional notions in their work: textiles became sculptures, installations, social gestures – and a medium of feminist Empowerment.

This current publication focuses on forty specially selected twentieth- and twenty-first-century female positions in Europe. They evince the multifaceted development of textile expression up to the present day, making the concepts, techniques and function of textiles accessible from multiple levels. The charged relationship of textile and body meanwhile runs through many of the compiled works. For textiles are frequently experienced up close – they touch us, literally. And it is in precisely this closeness that the functional or critical, fragile and poetic potential of many textile works unfolds.

At the same time, the works invite us to question not only the historical context of textiles but also cultural practices – or to think about them with an alternative mindset. Textiles stand for an autonomous, wide-ranging history of traditions and today still represent a powerful medium for contemporary creativity. In a time when resources are becoming scarce, identities are in flux and methods of production are being scrutinised, textile practices are increasingly gaining social and political significance.

In her comprehensive essay, Stephanie Kahnau locates textiles in the history of art and design, while additional texts from experts enrich our view of the medium from idiosyncratic and at times theoretical perspectives. The large-format illustrations and introductory texts for each entry reveal the breadth and expressive power of these works. An appendix featuring links to galleries, opportunities for study, awards and foundations, among other sites, makes this book a practical reference work for everyone interested in the wide-ranging subject of textiles.

Published: December 2025
Format: Hardcover
Edition: 1st
Extent: 240
ISBN: 978-3-89790-742-3
Illustrations: 235 color illustrations
Publisher: arnoldsche ART PUBLISHERS
Language: German/English

Hardcover: € 38 [D] / US$ 65 / £ 42

More information: www.arnoldsche.com