Sara Impey - Text in Textile Art

All direct quotations:

Why use text?   Words draw people in.  They engage people's whole attention.  If you can read, you do read:  you can't help it.   The brain interprets the simplest strokes and outlines as letters or numbers.  p6 introduction

For most textile artists [who use words], text is rarely an add-on or afterthought but an integral part of the work.  The placement, size and character of any script they use [is carefully considered].  Many artists, aware that the involuntary urge to read can dominate the viewer's emotional and intellectual response, work on the borderline of readability.  ... Words ... connection the past and the present, giving rise to a sense of dialogue with the aanymous mark-makes who went before.  p8 introduction.

Artists find that text based found objects are ideal vehicles to articulate personal or collective memories or to high issues such as the consumer society or environmental degradation.  p9 introduction.

Why artists choose to work with text.  How to include text in such a way that it does not intrude clumsily on a work's design, but enhances and complements it.  p10 introduction

I have always interpreted the idea of text on textile in a literal and explicit way.  My quilts are intended tote legible and the works and meanings are paramount.  I use my work to comment on social or personal issues, or to lay with language, often with a dash of humour.  I enjoy using the medium of stitch to explore the territory in which the visual image of the text intersects with what it is trying to express.

Artists who work with text and textiles are uniting two media whose narrative potential is deeply ingrained in human experience.  p14

There is indeed something resonant, almost magical, about an embroidered name the echoes down the generations ands lost none of its potency today as a physical link to the past. p16

All memory is a part of a narrative and is also affected by the narratives we constantly tell ourselves .... for this reason the work demands text to elucidate some of the stories - Val Jackson p29

Tilleke Schwartz - enjoys subverting the notion that textile artworks have to be scrupulously plotted and designed.  p31

Chapter 3 Social and Political Issues

Robin Schwalbe - Text should not dominate the viewer's emotional and intuitive response.  The quilt works initially as a striking image, with the suggestion of language - and then, if you work hard enough at it, you can discover the full quote for yourself. p46

Impey: I wanted to draw attention to the often inadequate responses to issues by political leaders and the population at large. p48

Caren Garfen - The entertaining accessibility of her work masks a serious underlying social commentary. p50

Rhiannon Williams  - It's striking just how much is conveyed, almost in a documentary sense, by short phrases or single words. p51

Lynn Setterington - depicts everyday items that are usually overlooked 'a constant celebration or the ordinary'.  p59