Files
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Publication Date
10-1-2023
Description
Entry for the 10th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest. Opening Reception Thursday, February 29th, 2024 Fleet Library, Main Reading Room. Juror: Ian Cozzens BArch 05.
Keywords
artists' books, Baker & Whitehill
Disciplines
Book and Paper
Student Status
Undergraduate student
Year of Graduation
2024
Major
Textiles
Materials + Techniques
Paper, Cotton Fabric; Screenprint
Student Narrative
This artists’ book is a package that holds a crochet fabric and a silkscreen printed booklet. The crochet fabric is made with the technique of filet crochet, where the grids of the pattern form the Chinese characters of “Liberty” (自由). Illustrations of the tools and processes used in the act of crocheting are silkscreen-printed onto the box. Two real-size pattern and notation charts encourage people to understand how the fabric is made and/or make their own version.
Packaged as a gift/tutorial book, this book object is the culmination of the Liberty crochet project I started last year. I posted a self-produced tutorial online, demonstrating the steps of making crochet with gridded texts. “Liberty” was a good hope in the face of mass control of civilian freedom under the Chinese government. Many people made, shared and traded their own versions following the tutorial. The booklet showcases multiple versions of fabrics that people made; some reversed the pattern, some adapted it into a bag. This project bridges craft and activism, digital and real spaces, good hope and tangible objects. This artist book serves an archive of this collective effort of keeping and spreading hope.
Photo Credit
Miles Tong 2025 FAV
Recommended Citation
Guo, Xiao; Collections, Special; and Library, Fleet, "'Liberty' Crochet" (2023). 10th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest 2024. 22.
https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/bookcontest10th2024/22