When This You See...

When This You See... is a series of 31 artworks in the medium of embroidery, made between 1996 and 1999, by the American artist Elaine Reichek. All of these beautiful images are reproduced here in full colour and three appear in spectacular gatefolds. traditional samplers dating from the mid- seventeeth to the early-eighteenth century. Created by girls and women as an educational exercise and as a pastime, samplers generally framed truisms, homilies, amd lessons within decorative patterns and motifs. In When This You See..., 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. Extending and clarifying that challenge, Reichek punctuates the sequence of the samplers with a number of embroideries derived from works by well-known contemporary artists. Humourous and sophisticated, her art is also visually gorgeous.