Apr 10, 2023 Now on Display! Fiber /// Liber : The Relationship of Textiles and Text

Fiber /// Liber: The Relationship of Textiles and Text
A Rare Books Exhibition
Level 4, Special Collections Exhibition Gallery
J. Willard Marriott, The University of Utah
March 31 through June 23, 2023

This exhibition is free and open to the public.

There is a clear etymological root between the words text and textile. We can trace it back to the Latin verb, texere — meaning to weave. The language of textiles provides us with certain figures of speech that bring a sense of materiality to writing. We weave a tale, spin a yarn, and piece together. There are stories that intertwine and threads that interlace. There are characters that get ensnared in a web of lies, there are ties that bind and relationships that fray. Material and immaterial. Textile and text.

Both have served as transmitters of cultural ideas. They have been linked to the sacred — to origin stories, prayers, songs, life cycles, myth-making, and storytelling. Both are made from stems, roots, fibers, whether beaten or spun. In some cases, textile evolves into text, as the fabric that was once created by workers in a textile mill eventually becomes rags in a paper mill. Textile to text.

If we look closely, the book itself is nothing more than a form of fiber art. From paper to sewn binding to cloth covers, the book is the perfect example of the interwoven industry of textiles and text. Fiber /// Liber is a commentary that seeks to explore that relationship.

To learn more,

Visit level four of the J. Willard Marriott Library to see Fiber /// Liber

Take a virtual scroll through our Digital Exhibition

View the full lecture online, on the Marriott Library’s YouTube Channel.

###