When women take embroidery and other textile arts beyond their accustomed uses; out of private, out of domestic, out of the female sphere, and make them large (like Sheila Hicks) unruly (like Louise Bourgeois) or ambitious (like the Bayeux Tapestry) it is a performative act.
It performs gender. It demands acknowledgment on a scale that tiny textiles do not.
Janet Berlo
