Craft and War
Makers, Users, and Craft Practices since the 19th Century
Will be published approx. on 11. June 2026
Book
Hardback
336 pages
978-1-350-34548-5 (ISBN)
Description
Examining the diverse ways in which craft has participated in wars from the mid-19th century to the present day, this book brings together a wealth of scholarship to redress an understudied area of modern craft history. Craft and War explores issues of fabrication, makers, objects, uses and users throughout conflicts across the world to provide a critical understanding of the relationship between craft and contexts of war.
Chapters look at the impact of colonization on making practices and acts of preserving cultural heritage in times of dislocation and migration. Authors provide insights into repurposing tools of oppression and the appropriation of material culture as a device of warfare, in addition to embroidery and tactics of resistance, and the role of craft and folk art in international feminist peace activism. Organized into four thematic sections, this book reveals how craft developed in different regions during and after armed conflicts, including research on trench art and objects, quilts and rugs commissioned in wartime, and ceramics and the art of commemoration. Craft and War also provides a breadth of analysis on crafting as a rehabilitative activity and traces government initiatives across different countries for post-war healing involving crafts.
This important contribution to modern craft history addresses multiple facets of a rich and complex subject to provide cross-national, cultural and chronological comparisons of craft's participation in situations of conflict and stages of war.
Chapters look at the impact of colonization on making practices and acts of preserving cultural heritage in times of dislocation and migration. Authors provide insights into repurposing tools of oppression and the appropriation of material culture as a device of warfare, in addition to embroidery and tactics of resistance, and the role of craft and folk art in international feminist peace activism. Organized into four thematic sections, this book reveals how craft developed in different regions during and after armed conflicts, including research on trench art and objects, quilts and rugs commissioned in wartime, and ceramics and the art of commemoration. Craft and War also provides a breadth of analysis on crafting as a rehabilitative activity and traces government initiatives across different countries for post-war healing involving crafts.
This important contribution to modern craft history addresses multiple facets of a rich and complex subject to provide cross-national, cultural and chronological comparisons of craft's participation in situations of conflict and stages of war.
Reviews / Votes
I delight in rabbit holes - and this collection of articles provides a veritable warren of enticing bibliographies - archival, historic, contemporary, western, and non-western resources. * Jennifer Salahub, Professor Emerita of Art and Craft Histories, Alberta University of the Arts, Canada *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
59 colour illus.
Dimensions
Height: 236 mm
Width: 162 mm
Thickness: 26 mm
Weight
900 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-350-34548-5 (9781350345485)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Jennifer Way is Professor of Art History at the University of North Texas, USA, specializing in modern and contemporary art, emphasizing social meanings and uses that people make of art, fabrication activities, craft, design and exhibitions. Her current work examines craft objects and fabrication in contexts of war-related coping and healing since the 19th century. She is the author of The Politics of Vietnamese Craft (Bloomsbury, 2019).
Heather Smith has 30 years of experience working in art and history museums and art galleries in Canada. She organized numerous travelling exhibitions such as Quilting for a Cause: Red Cross Quilts for the Great War (2019); Vaughan Grayson an Artist in the Canadian Rockies (2006); Keepsakes of Conflict: Trench Art and Other Canadian War-Related Craft (2006); and Fred Strickland's War Sketches (2002). In 2013, she won the publisher of the year award from the Saskatchewan Book Awards for Hansen Ross Pottery: Pioneering Fine Craft on the Canadian Prairies (2012).
Alida Jekabson is Curatorial Assistant at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York, USA where she has contributed to numerous exhibitions, including Queer Maximalism x Machine Dazzle (2022), Garmenting: Costume as Contemporary Art (2022), Craft Front & Center (2021), Carrie Moyer and Sheila Pepe: Tabernacles for Trying Times (2021) and MAD Collects: The Future of Craft Part 1 and Part 2 (2018). Jekabson's scholarship focuses on cultural heritage, identity and craft, and she has published in Miradas 5: Bodies/Fashions in the Americas (2021), and presented at The Craft History Workshop, College Art Association, USA and Association for Art History, UK, among other conferences.
Heather Smith has 30 years of experience working in art and history museums and art galleries in Canada. She organized numerous travelling exhibitions such as Quilting for a Cause: Red Cross Quilts for the Great War (2019); Vaughan Grayson an Artist in the Canadian Rockies (2006); Keepsakes of Conflict: Trench Art and Other Canadian War-Related Craft (2006); and Fred Strickland's War Sketches (2002). In 2013, she won the publisher of the year award from the Saskatchewan Book Awards for Hansen Ross Pottery: Pioneering Fine Craft on the Canadian Prairies (2012).
Alida Jekabson is Curatorial Assistant at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York, USA where she has contributed to numerous exhibitions, including Queer Maximalism x Machine Dazzle (2022), Garmenting: Costume as Contemporary Art (2022), Craft Front & Center (2021), Carrie Moyer and Sheila Pepe: Tabernacles for Trying Times (2021) and MAD Collects: The Future of Craft Part 1 and Part 2 (2018). Jekabson's scholarship focuses on cultural heritage, identity and craft, and she has published in Miradas 5: Bodies/Fashions in the Americas (2021), and presented at The Craft History Workshop, College Art Association, USA and Association for Art History, UK, among other conferences.
Content
List of Figures
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Part I. Reviving Presence
1. Eco-critical Entanglements: San Pottery, Genocide, Historical Archaeology, and Indigenous Knowledge, Wendy Gers (Hanze University of Applied Sciences, the Netherlands)
2. Material Recovery through Hand-Built Talismans and Other Sensing Objects, Cindy Mochizuki (Independent Scholar, Canada)
Part II. Making Do
3. Crafting War, Handling Conflict: Trench Art, from Object to Embodied World, Nicholas J. Saunders (University of Bristol, UK)
4. Textile Handicrafts as Tactics of Resistance in and after Auschwitz: The Example of Lisa Pinhas in Context, Anne Roehl (University of Siegen, Germany)
5. An Aesthetic Ecosystem in Adrian Pepe's Untitled Braided Shearlings: Art and Resilience in Lebanon, Jessica Gershultz (University of St Andrews, UK)
Part III. Craft in Displacement
6. Passing the Thread: Craft and Latvian National Dress in Post-War Displaced Communities, Alida Jekabson (University of California, Santa Barbara, USA)
7. Memory, Mediation, and Affordances in Colombia's Mampujan Tapestries, Antonio Sanchez Gomez (Parsons School of Design, The New School, USA)
Part IV. Organizing Women
8. Intermediaries of Craft in 20th Century Morocco and Algeria, Maia Nichols (University of California, San Diego, USA)
9. Quilting for a Cause: Forgetting and Remembering First World War Signature Fundraising Quilts in Canada, Heather Smith (Western University, Canada)
10. Another History of Indian Handicraft: Partition of India, Rehabilitation, and Women's Work, Chandan Bose (Indian Institute of Technology, India)
Part V. Craft and Healing
11. Modern Craft in the Aftermath of War: The Case of the Disabled Soldiers' Embroidery Industry, 1918-1971, Joseph McBrinn (Ulster University, UK)
12. Craft Therapy in Imperial Military, Medical, and Museum Spaces, 1939-45, Imogen Wiltshire (University of Lincoln, UK)
13. Clay and Combat: Exploring the Embodied Experience of War through Ceramic Practice, Christopher McHugh (Ulster University, UK)
Part VI. Politics of Friendship
14. A Rose-Colored Reunion: Craft in White-Civil War Veteran Reconciliation, Sarah Ann Burgos (Museum of the Virginia National Guard, USA)
15. Women's Caravan of Peace, 1958: Craft, Folk art, and sisterhood fighting the Cold War Divide, Valeria Fulop-Pochon (University of Bristol, UK)
16. Exhibiting Diplomacy in Cold War North Korea: The Role of Craft and Juche in North Korea's International Friendship Exhibition, Karlee Bergendorff (Duke University, USA)
List of Contributors
Index
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Part I. Reviving Presence
1. Eco-critical Entanglements: San Pottery, Genocide, Historical Archaeology, and Indigenous Knowledge, Wendy Gers (Hanze University of Applied Sciences, the Netherlands)
2. Material Recovery through Hand-Built Talismans and Other Sensing Objects, Cindy Mochizuki (Independent Scholar, Canada)
Part II. Making Do
3. Crafting War, Handling Conflict: Trench Art, from Object to Embodied World, Nicholas J. Saunders (University of Bristol, UK)
4. Textile Handicrafts as Tactics of Resistance in and after Auschwitz: The Example of Lisa Pinhas in Context, Anne Roehl (University of Siegen, Germany)
5. An Aesthetic Ecosystem in Adrian Pepe's Untitled Braided Shearlings: Art and Resilience in Lebanon, Jessica Gershultz (University of St Andrews, UK)
Part III. Craft in Displacement
6. Passing the Thread: Craft and Latvian National Dress in Post-War Displaced Communities, Alida Jekabson (University of California, Santa Barbara, USA)
7. Memory, Mediation, and Affordances in Colombia's Mampujan Tapestries, Antonio Sanchez Gomez (Parsons School of Design, The New School, USA)
Part IV. Organizing Women
8. Intermediaries of Craft in 20th Century Morocco and Algeria, Maia Nichols (University of California, San Diego, USA)
9. Quilting for a Cause: Forgetting and Remembering First World War Signature Fundraising Quilts in Canada, Heather Smith (Western University, Canada)
10. Another History of Indian Handicraft: Partition of India, Rehabilitation, and Women's Work, Chandan Bose (Indian Institute of Technology, India)
Part V. Craft and Healing
11. Modern Craft in the Aftermath of War: The Case of the Disabled Soldiers' Embroidery Industry, 1918-1971, Joseph McBrinn (Ulster University, UK)
12. Craft Therapy in Imperial Military, Medical, and Museum Spaces, 1939-45, Imogen Wiltshire (University of Lincoln, UK)
13. Clay and Combat: Exploring the Embodied Experience of War through Ceramic Practice, Christopher McHugh (Ulster University, UK)
Part VI. Politics of Friendship
14. A Rose-Colored Reunion: Craft in White-Civil War Veteran Reconciliation, Sarah Ann Burgos (Museum of the Virginia National Guard, USA)
15. Women's Caravan of Peace, 1958: Craft, Folk art, and sisterhood fighting the Cold War Divide, Valeria Fulop-Pochon (University of Bristol, UK)
16. Exhibiting Diplomacy in Cold War North Korea: The Role of Craft and Juche in North Korea's International Friendship Exhibition, Karlee Bergendorff (Duke University, USA)
List of Contributors
Index