DOYLESTOWN, PA — "Barbara Moon Boertzel: Listening to Time," the first museum retrospective of New Hope artist and educator Barbara Moon Boertzel, is on view at Michener Art Museum from Saturday, Oct. 24, through Sunday, April 18.
The exhibition surveys more than four decades of Boertzel's handmade paper and direct drawing stitchery, a technique of drawing with needle and thread, and culminates in the debut of a new artist book trilogy.
The trilogy, "I Listen to the Passage of Time," represents the full range of disciplines the fiber and book artist has mastered in her career. Boertzel records her latest observations in Japanese handbound journals filled with stitched cloth, monoprints, photographs, and tropical fiber paper she made by hand on the island of Guam in the 1980s.
"Fiber connects everything she makes, from slow stitching to papermaking to handbound books," said Michener Art Museum Assistant Curator Abi Lua, who curated the exhibition. "For Barbara, the artist book is the perfect container for each element, and the perfect expression of her artistic practice. Every page reflects her sustained attention toward her surroundings, her inner state, and the process of making art itself."
The first known tropical fiber papermaker in the western Pacific, Boertzel was also drawing with needle and thread long before textiles drew wide attention in art and academic spaces. She has worked in direct drawing stitchery since the 1990s, making her an early practitioner of the mindful, contemplative approach to textile art now known as slow stitch.
"Designs for Beauty and Knowledge" created by Barbara Moon Boertzel.
"Lacy Leaves" by Barbara Moon Boertzel.
Throughout her career, Boertzel approached the act of making as a form of meditation, ranging across disciplines but always seeking to capture moments of time. Each of the 16 works on view records a moment that drew her attention, from the life cycle of a zinnia, a swell of a river vortex, to the rhythms of a woman setting the table.
Through her choice of subject, medium, and method, Boertzel contemplates the fleeting nature of time and, simultaneously, the fullness of a single moment. In the handbound book Hurrying Slowly, time is measured literally, with time stamps in ink for how long it took to make each page. In many works, Boertzel builds geometric fields of marks using only the running stitch; the simple, repeated motion allows her to remain present to the process of making.
"I've learned that process is as important as product. The product is merely a trace of the journey," Boertzel said. "I hope to inspire the viewer to slow down, be in the moment, and look more closely."
The exhibition ranges from intimate pages to large-scale textiles. Visitors can explore Boertzel's new trilogy in full through a video presentation that turns through every page of the three books. In "Lines of the Hand" (1994), delicate strips of stitched cotton organdy and Japanese paper stretch nearly five feet tall but only two and a half inches wide, while "Movement in Stillness" (1993–94), the largest work on view, is a hand-stitched Polish linen that spans more than five and a half feet.
"Craft has always been central to the Michener's story, and presenting Barbara's handmade paper, stitched textiles, and artist books is a remarkable addition to that legacy," said Michener Art Museum Executive Director and CEO Anne Corso. "In a world that moves so quickly, Listening to Time is an invitation to linger and spend time together in the galleries."
The exhibition Barbara Moon Boertzel: Listening to Time in the Bette and Nelson Pfundt Gallery is presented by Vivian Banta and Robert Field.
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