Radical Lace & Subversive Knitting presents an array of works that reflect the energy, vitality and innovation demonstrated by a diverse group of contemporary artists who apply traditional knitting and lacemaking techniques to unusual materials, or new techniques and technologies to traditional materials.

The works brought together here are by artists from many different countries. Individually these works speak to the pervasive and persuasive cultural, social, and political issues with which art intersects today. The role of hand work as a symbol of community and communication is highlighted in many of these pieces, and the artist's personal commitment to collaborative experiments is the focus of others.

The works are also barometers of change in the visual arts of our time, signalling the dissolving of the categories of art, craft and design that have fragmented the world of aesthetic and functional objects for more than a century.

Includes an index of artists and exhibited works.

Persian Rugs and Carpets: The Fabric of Life presents a pictorial journey around Persia, reflecting the weaving and pattern styles of the many regions and tribes - including Esfahan, Kashan, Nain, Qum, Kerman, Tabriz, Bakhtiari, Senneh, Malayer and Qashqa'i - showing the vast range of carpets woven in Persia from about 1850 to the third quarter of the 20th century.

The introductory text to each section explains the particular aspects of that region's weaving style. In addition, each caption gives an in-depth account of the carpet, not only the date and region in which it was woven, but also the motifs and patterns, the technique used, even the weaver, and, in the case of pictorial carpets, the fascinating stories being depicted.

The introductory essay takes the reader through the history and geography of the Persian rug, including information on structure, weaving and knotting, the different output of the city and urban workshops compared to tribal and village weaving, flatweaves, and identification. It also features points of note for the collector, such as conservation and cleaning, as well as highlighting the difficulties in dating rugs, and the problems with fakes.

Lavishly illustrated in colour throughout, Persian Rugs and Carpets: The Fabric of Life shows these carpets at their very best, allowing the reader to compare carpets at a glance.

This book tells the full story of the Kashmir shawl, how it migrated to Europe in the 1800s and how the key pattern of the boteh evolved. With its beginnings under the Mughal emperors in Kashmir, the industry continued under Afghan rule, with an explosion of new designs during the Sikh period, until it fell into decline under the rule of the Dogra Rajahs.

Frank Ames, a textile dealer himself, stresses the importance of the French connection in the nineteenth century and the cross-fertilisation of ideas engendered by the strong demands of European fashion whose love of the Oriental produced the rival Jacquard shawl. Changing fashions at the end of that century saw the demise of the shawl.

The shawls are classified by stylistic period and an illustrated guide is included in the book to show the chronological development of designs. This will help the collector to date shawls more accurately as the boteh changes from a recognisable flower blossom to an abstract symbol.

The first book on European textiles, presents a selection of more than 100 furnishing textiles and designs that range from a spectacular printed hanging designed by the Wiener Werkstätte artist, Dagobert Peche, between 1911 and 1918, to a series of dramatic woven, silk and metal wall coverings Les Colombes designed by Henri Stephany for the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes. The Art Deco period is well represented by the works of Raoul Dufy, Alberto Lorenzi, Robert Bonfils, Alfred Latour, Emile Alain Seguy and Paul Dumas.

Britain maintained its pre-eminent position in textile design throughout the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s. This was because firms like Edinburgh Weavers, Heal & Sons and Hull Traders and museums such as the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester (the centre of the British textile industry) worked hard at integrating and promoting great design, often by well-known artists, with industry. Among the artists who worked with Edinburgh Weavers were Marino Marini, Victor Vasarely and Alan Reynolds. Britain was not alone in applying art to industry. An elegant example of Op Art is the work of the German artist, Wolf Bauer, whose 1969/70 designs for one of the leading American manufacturers, Knoll Textiles, is a highlight of this book.

This is the first comprehensive survey of the vast and fascinating subject of Persian flatweaves, and in particular floor covers. Previous publications on the subject have largely been dealers' restricted catalogues focusing on a narrow geographical area or the weavings of a particular group, or sections in more general books. This book thus fills a huge gap in the oriental carpet and textile literature.

Flatweaves have until recently been seen as merely the products and property of the poor. Since the late 1960s, however, growing attention has been paid to the best known type of flatweave, the gelim, revealing both its quality and variety. Other flatweaves, such as the palas, which is no less frequently found than the gelim, have scarcely been mentioned in any of the literature published so far, yet are shown in this work to be objects of great beauty and diversity.

The book is divided into two parts. The first deals with the cultural background to the subject. Drawing on literary sources as well as surviving examples, it describes the long history of flatweaves, showing their relation to pileweaves. The second part of the book deals with the different types of flatweave in turn: gelim, palas, weft-wrapped weaves, zilu and jajim. It also covers the range of uses to which they were put.

Largely unappreciated, the traditional flatwoven Indian dhurrie has long been overshadowed by the luxuriant Mughal pile carpets. For the first time the dhurrie is given the prominence it deserves. Transcending social boundaries the dhurrie was used by commoner and royalty alike - at its simplest it was a multi-purpose textile used as floor covering, bedding or packaging. At its most elaborate, however, woven with the finest fibres and enhanced with gold threads, it graced the palaces of royalty.

This pioneering work traces the dhurrie back into the mists of prehistoric India with beautifully reproduced photographs of extant examples through the centuries. It pays particular attention to the design and colouring of dhurries from classic stripes to ornate geometrical designs as well as pictorial dhurries.

The many stages of dhurrie making are comprehensively covered - from the selection and dying of the yarn to the final processes of weaving, washing and finishing. A particular feature is the coverage of contemporary dhurries as a decorative art form in its own right.

The story of embroidery and needlework is discussed within the fascinating context of the history of fabrics, of decorative costume, of interior decoration, of church and state ceremonial, of girls' education, of furniture and past-times.

Silk, cotton, linen, the significance of colours and dyes and the worldwide fascination with the influence of Chinese embroidery and Indian textiles are also considered. The book is a broad account of the artistic achievements of every facet of decorative needlework.

The Kashmiri shawl is rooted in a complex tradition of craft that dates back at least five hundred years. Its uniqueness lies in a combination of factors that have made it virtually impossible to duplicate anywhere else. The Kashmiri Shawl is the story of this textile, re-told through a South Asian perspective. This book re-aligns the design symbolism and technical evolution of the shawl to indigenous sources by placing emphasis on areas previously ignored in earlier histories.

The shawl's origins in Kashmir, the rich vein of patronage it thrived on, its changing ornamental face, its regional variations in Persia and Punjab, its enormous impact on the European imagination, all combine to form a narrative shaped to engage the reader. The authors bring fresh clarity to the many myths that have arisen around the Kashmiri shawl on the South Asian trade circuit. They also interpret most of the complexities in the Kashmiri shawl lexicon. Today, possessing one of these jewel-like collectables is like owning a tiny stake in the heritage of its many-layered cultural identities.