World Textiles and Textiles as Art

Books to enhance your understanding of textiles as an important art and culture touchpoint. In support of the Royal BC Museum's feature exhibit, Global Threads: The Art and Fashion of Indian Chintz, on from March 28, 2025 ­- September 28, 2025.

Updated May 24, 2025
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African textiles : colour and creativity across a continent
Gillow, John
Paper Book
African Textiles is an authoritative survey of textile arts--unique and collectible rugs, tapestries, garments, and much more--from across the continent. John Gillow has traveled extensively throughout Africa, uncovering the dazzling range of traditional, handcrafted, indigenous textiles from...
Cloth that changed the world : the art and fashion of Indian chintz
Royal Ontario Museum
Paper Book
The story of India's exuberantly colored textiles that made their mark on design, technology, and trade around the world Chintz, a type of multicolored printed or painted cotton cloth, originated in India yet exerted influence far beyond its home shores: it...
Empire of cotton : a global history
Beckert, Sven
Paper Book
WINNER OF THE BANCROFT PRIZE * A Pulitzer Prize finalist that's as unsettling as it is enlightening: a book that brilliantly weaves together the story of cotton with how the present global world came to exist. "Masterly ... An astonishing achievement." --The New York...
The fabric of civilization : how textiles made the world
Postrel, Virginia I.
Paper Book
From Paleolithic flax to 3D knitting, explore the global history of textiles and the world they weave together in this enthralling and educational guide. The story of humanity is the story of textiles -- as old as civilization itself. Since the...
Indigo : in search of the color that seduced the world
McKinley, Catherine E.
Paper Book
For almost five millennia, in every culture and in every major religion, indigo-a blue pigment obtained from the small green leaf of a parasitic shrub through a complex process that even scientists still regard as mysterious-has been at the center of turbulent human encounters. ...
Interpreting themes in textile art
Baarle, Els van
Paper Book
This stunning collection showcases the work produced by renowned textile artists Els van Baarle and Cherilyn Martin, and explores how - even when working from the same starting point - textile art can produce a myriad interpretations of shape, form, colour and technique. Els and Cherilyn have chosen...
Patterns of India : a journey through colors, textiles, and the vibrancy of Rajasthan
Chitnis, Christine
Paper Book
It's the trip of a lifetime-a textile-based tour of colorful Rajasthan, India featuring more than 200 lush photographs depicting everyday life in one of the most vibrant regions in the world. "Get lost in the beauty of the photographs inPatterns of India,a striking...
Resilient stitch
Wellesley-Smith, Claire
Paper Book
Following on from her textile hit, Slow Stitch, author Claire Wellesley-Smith considers the importance of connection and ideas around wellbeing when using textiles for individuals and communities. Practical ideas around 'thinking-throughmaking', using 'resonant' materials and extending the life...
Textiles : the whole story : uses, meanings, significance
Gordon, Beverly
Paper Book
This worldwide survey is essential reading for anyone with a passion for textiles, whether creative, professional or educational. A dazzling array of illustrations includes paintings and photographs of both historic and contemporary textiles and a broad collection of textiles being...
Women's work: the first 20,000 years
Wayland Barber, Elizabeth
Paper Book
Twenty thousand years ago, women were making and wearing clothing created from spun fibers. In Women's Work, archaeologist-linguist Elizabeth Wayland Barber "weaves the strands of mythology and literature, ethnology and documented history into a rich tapestry" (John Noble Wilford, New York...
World textiles : a concise history
Schoeser, Mary
Paper Book
An updated edition of thisindispensable reference,surveying the history oftextiles from twenty-five thousand yearsago to the present.  The history of textiles, more than that of any other artifact, is a history of human ingenuity. From the very earliest needles of twenty-five...
World textiles : a sourcebook
Paper Book
Featuring textiles from the Balkans, the Middle East, Asia, Africa, Central and South America, this book reveals an eclectic selection of over 150 textiles that illustrate the richness and diversity of world textiles. With expert commentary that highlights the key features of the designs and...

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