Anne Xavier Heide

clothes rack coverlet, 2024. Cotton yarn, acrylic yarn, rayon yarn, wood, shellac, paste wax, assorted hardware. 71"x62"x35"

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Coverlets are bed coverings that were prevalent in the United States through the start of the Industrial Revolution, when mass-produced textiles began to become more common. They are less well-known than quilts, and are handwoven rather than sewn together. Although romanticized as homespun cloth of the masses, they were not very warm and time-consuming to produce, so were likely less popular than other types of blankets for all but the wealthy. Coverlets were made to order, and the purchaser and weaver's names were often woven into the cloth, which stands in contrast to readymade, mass-produced textiles available for purchase today. Historical coverlets depict problematic colonist values. In this coverlet, I replace that imagery with motifs drawn from contemporary retail space. Although the way we purchase textiles in the United States has changed drastically since the height of coverlet production, textile consumption is still both fraught with inequity and extolled as part of personal and national identity.