Like the Petit Point by Bronwen Wallace, a fabric bookwork by Lise Melhorn-Boe
Channel: Queen's University Library
Date: 2022-05-03

Featured in the exhibition, Textus-Texts-Textiles: fabric bookworks by Lise Melhorn-Boe, at W.D. Jordan Rare Books and Special Collections, Queen’s University Library, 6 May – 9 September 2022. 

Like the Petit Point, is Melhorn-Boe’s interpretation of the Bronwen Wallace poem of the same name. Wallace (1945-1989), a Kingston local and Queen’s University graduate, was an advocate for women’s rights who focused her work on feminist issues surrounding domestic violence and sexual discrimination. The poem refers to books read, thus Melhorn-Boe has recreated the covers and title pages of pioneering second-wave feminist books in the pages of Like the Petit Point, utilizing knitting needles to form the spine of the book. The petit point image (a type of canvas embroidery) within the book is deliberately unfinished, just as Wallace’s poem mentions putting a project aside when other work intrudes, or something seemingly more important comes along. This piece embodies the female dilemma of doing whatever it takes to fulfill everyone's desires regardless of how it affects her wellbeing.  

Video by Brendan Edwards and Ella Heiss; edited by Ella Heiss, 2022.