sewing ... weaving ... stitching ... knitting ... crocheting...

Through the ages and across cultures, needlework has been a labor of love-or of obligation, for women. Fanny Viollet, a French artist known for her works on fabric, has taken the medium of needle and thread (traditionally known as "women's work") and infused them with references to the past and present to create whimsical works with feminist undertones. The fabrics, colors and techniques used all have a long "herstory" which Viollet has exploited to create new and personal meaning. Whether she utilizes antique whites or saturated color schemes, Viollet's method of sewing narratives and meticulously descriptive texts into her ceremonial objects brings to mind the nimble, weathered hands of grandmothers and great-grand­mothers working feverishly on silks, wools, laces, and cottons. However, the stories imbedded in Viollet's work speak truths about the trials and tribulations of womanhood that women of the past could not divulge.  

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Even as the feminist movement swept across Europe and the United States in the 1970's, the use of fabric as high art was still considered taboo by most art historians. But woman artists such as Faith Ringgold, Miriam Schapiro, Annette Messager and others, challenged the art establishment by creating work which used textile as an artistic and decidedly feminist medium. In this tradition, Viollet tackles the male-dominated history of art in pieces such as Palette and Les Cartes Postales Brodees (Embroidered Postcards), which satirically question the objectification of women and the exploitation of art in museum shops. Other work such as Triptych, are more abstract with hundreds of names of colors from the famous DMC catalogue­a seamstress' Bible in Europe.

Fanny Viollet has created a vast visual archive. Ariadne's Journal, with collected bits and scraps of thread and lint from her past homes, is very personal; but other works make reference to 19th-century Europe, when anatomy, physiology and Biblical authority were repeatedly invoked to reinforce the ideal of modest and pure womanhood that evolved during Queen Victoria's reign. The Bridal Veil, which was created at the time of Viollet's own wedding, has stitched in it the items that a woman of the Victorian age would make for her trousseau, the bride's gift of innumerable household linens to her groom. Viollet juxtaposes the airy lightness of the wedding veil with the burdensome weight of expectations placed on the woman's shoulders. Biblical texts found in C'est pourquoi la terre est ronde (That's Why the Earth is Round) and Song of Songs are aesthetically used to further separate the reality of womanhood from the myths of femininity and expectations imposed by society. While they examine issues of power and place of women in society, Viollet's works are inherently beautiful. Indeed, there is a striking contrast between their frequently seductive form and their bold iconography, which takes its cues not only from her own-but from a collective women's memory.

Text in Textile at Seton Hall's Walsh Library Gallery is Fanny Viollet's premiere exhibition on the East Coast. Her work has also been widely shown in galleries across Europe, Japan and the West Coast of the U.S.

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to the members of the University community who have sponsored, funded and helped with the exhibition. Additional thanks to Eva Gale, TLTC-Media Services and The Friends of the Hermitage, Ho-ho-kus, N.J. Walsh Library Gallery is part of the University Libraries, Dr. Arthur Häfner, Dean and Professor. Gallery Hours are Monday-Friday 10:30am-4:30pm. Call 973-275­2033 for more information, special events and group tours. Seton Hall University Library is located at 400 South Orange Avenue, South Orange, N.J. 07079. Visit our web site at http://library.shu.edu/gallery.