Author: Elaine Reichek

Publisher/Date: George Braziller, 2000, ISBN 10: 0807614602

Format/Condition: New hardcover book is in fine condition. 96 pages, illustrated.

Description: When This You See . . . is a series of 31 artworks in the medium of embroidery, made by between 1996 and 1999, by the American Artist Elaine Reichek. All of these beautiful images are reproduced here in full color and three appear in spectacular gatefolds.

Most of the works are modern interpretations of traditional samplers dating from the mid-17th to the early 19th century. Created by girls and women as an educational exercise and as a pastime, samplers generally framed truisms, homilies, and lessons within decorative patterns and motifs. In this book, Reichek replaces these familiar sayings with quotations from mythology, literature, science, art history, and popular culture to witty and pointed effect. Most of the quotations relate to the arts of weaving, knitting or embroidery, but the astonishing results range far more widely, operating as social critique, as commentary on the relations between the sexes, and as a challenge to traditional definitions of art.

Extending and clarifying that challenge, Reichek punctuates the sequence of samplers with a number of embroideries derived from works of well-known contemporary artists. Humorous and sophisticated, her art is also visually gorgeous.