Join Gauze Bonnet Press to celebrate the launch of their latest publication, Four Essays on Embroidery by Arts and Crafts movement icon May Morris.

This collection brings together four of May Morris’s essays on embroidery- three from a collection entitled Arts and Crafts Essays (1893) and one first published in the Century Guild Hobby Horse. These essays explo9re embroidery as a craft, a form of art, and a political practice. Morris devoted much of her life to supporting women in the arts, and an important part of this effort was insisting on the legitimacy of art forms mostly practised by women, such as embroidery. These essays discuss the history of embroidery, the applications of different stitches, colour theory, and general approaches to the craft. A thread of Morris’s feminist and socialist ethos run through the background, as she examines embroidery as a form of gendered labour in the face of industrial capitalism. These themes are explored in a fantastic introduction by art historian A.M. Dodds, whose work focuses on ecocriticism of Modern British Art and the Arts and Crafts movement.

This event will be a panel discuss on May Morris’s life and legacy, as well as the history of embroidery and women in the Arts and Crafts movement. The panel will be chaired by Megan McInerney, who will be joined by panelists A.M. Dodds, Isabella Rosner, and Kate Bugos.

This is a free event but please RSVP using the link below!