HOW TO READ AFRICAN TEXTILES

180pp., b/w & colour illus., map, paperback, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2025

ISBN: 9781588397911

This volume in The Met’s How to Read series features forty masterworks of African fiber arts from the Western Sahel, West African coastal forests, Central Africa and East Africa, including ceremonial robes and skirts, prestige cloths, men and women's wrappings, tent dividers and display panels.

The authors explore the complex histories of production, consumption, and exchange attached to these works; contextualize long-standing and recently embraced techniques and materials; and offer readers new ways to appreciate Africa’s diverse textile traditions.

Christine Giuntini is conservator and Jenny Peruski is assistant curator, Arts of Africa, both in The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.