What people wear tells the world something about who they are or would like to be. On another level, the textiles created by a people demonstrate that culture's artistic expression of beauty. It has been so from ancient times through modern days.

Textiles: Collection of the Museum of International Folk Art explores the deeper meaning behind the textiles and clothing on display at the museum. Evident is how different cultures have taken the same objects-shoes, hats, pants, or bedding-and made them unique to their location and time.

Dress and home decor are about belonging and boundaries, including and excluding. Learn how cultures have developed styles and techniques that reflect their specific situations. Then see how individuals expand those techniques and styles, making something distinctive by following or breaking the rules.

With hundreds of examples from more than seventy countries, Textiles offers a glimpse into the lives and passions of people who created and used the decorative textile pieces displayed so exquisitely here.

Bobbie Sumberg is curator of Textiles and Costume at the Museum of International Folk Art. She received a master of arts and a PhD from the University of Minnesota. She has curated several exhibits, including Needles and Pins: Textiles and Tools; Dream On Beds from Asia to Europe; and Dressing Up: Children's Clothes from Around the World. She is the coauthor of Sleeping Around: The Bed from Antiquity to Now. For more than fifty years, the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico, has been documenting, collecting, preserving, and interpreting the creative works of traditional artists from cultures throughout the world. Founded by Florence Dibell Bartlett, the museum is the largest of its kind in the world, with a collection of more than 130,000 objects. This is a pre-sale for this book; we will have copies by December 15, 2009. Published by Gibbs Smith, hardcover, 250 pages.