INTERLACED
Research, Book Design
Research, Book Design
Both revealing and concealing, lace is a material defined by paradox. It is both sacred and erotic, traditional and rebellious, conservative and contemporary, restraining and empowering. Throughout histroy, lace has been used in religious vestments, aristocratic attire, intimate garments, traditional clothing, gender-neutral fashion, as well as in pop culture. By unpacking these different meanings, lace reveals more about society’s constructions of power, body regulation, and identity negotiation than it does about the material itself, demonstrating that meaning is not inherent in objects, but is instead created, contested, and performed through culture. In this way, it becomes a reflection of the values, hierarchies, and politics of those who attribute meaning to it.
In the book, spatial and temporal contexts are compared in order to show the fabric‘s wide-ranging symbolism and forms of expression. The book was created working with image archives, image mirroring and a non-linear way of storytelling to create an experience for the reader that is close to the lace-making process, where individual narratives are linked in image and text to form a coherent overall picture.
“Interlaced” was designed and bound by hand in collaboration with Carmen Fritsch and Paul Daubenspeck and was exhibited at the Leipzig Book Fair in 2024 and featured in a post by Slanted Publishers.