Connections Between Textiles and Picture Books at The Carle

A new exhibition at The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art opening next month will explores the connection between textiles and picture books over the past 60 years of illustration history. 

Running November 21 through May 2, 2027, Weaving Words: Fiber Arts and Picture Books takes a look at how artists have used textile imagery to explore themes of culture and human connection, and have even used fiber art techniques and materials to create picture book illustrations. The exhibition features work from 27 picture books by artists including Juana Martinez-Neal, Salley Mavor, Dinara Mirtalipova, Faith Ringgold, and Vesper Stamper, as well as textiles that inspired or relate to works on view, including quilts, fabrics, and a soft-sculpted diorama.

“Illustration artists have long experimented with materials to replicate intricate textures and even create textile-illustration hybrids,” said exhibition curator Isabel Ruiz Cano. “When woven together, these artworks showcase the many facets of storytelling, and the common thread that binds us together: textiles as story, identity, and expression.”

The exhibition includes a range of books with experimental materials that replicate intricate textures in two dimensions, or that use actual fiber arts to create immersive worlds that are then photographed for their books. Dahlov Ipcar worked with a limited color palette of green, black, and white in her book The Calico Jungle (1965) which features a child’s quilt pieced together from calico fabric that becomes the stage for an adventurous dream. Meanwhile, Salley Mavor’s Pocketful of Posies (2010) is a playful sculptural embroidery that includes wool felt, beads, shells, mini jingle bells, dried seed pots, acorn caps, wool fleece, wire, thread, yarn, ribbon, acrylic paint, and faux flowers.  

Other highlights include:

• Elisa Chavarri’s illustrations for Rainbow Weaver (2016) by Linda Elovitz Marshall showing how a Guatemalan girl repurposes plastic bags littering her community to create a woven fabric using traditional Mayan weaving techniques; Chavarri’s digital artwork includes scanned Mayan textiles, some of which are on view in the exhibition.
• Ishita Jain’s illustrations for Midnight Motorbike (2025) by Maureen Shay Tajsar using the image of a South Indian sari extended from the opening spread throughout the book, with hidden glimpses of patterned fabric on every page
• Faith Ringgold’s story quilt Tar Beach 2 (1990) which tells the story of Cassie Lightfoot, a young girl who goes on an emancipatory flight through New York City, later published as a picture book; Ringgold worked with The Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia to create editioned versions of the Tar Beach quilt, one of which is on view in the exhibition