April 2017 

Read Thread is published to coincide with Cecilia Vicuña’s installation in Athens for documenta 14, and tells the story of the sanguine thread in the artist’s work. From the 1970s to the present, Vicuña’s work has engaged with rituals involving red thread from Aboriginal Australia, South Africa, Paleolithic Europe, and pre-Columbian America. The Chilean artist’s performances, installations, paintings and drawings relate to the symbolic function of textile and language.

Read Thread documents Vicuña’s quipus – large-scale immersive installations of thread, wool and yarn that reference the pre-Columbian language of knotting, a type of weaving-as-writing. The book also includes poetic texts and narratives written by the artist especially for this project, as well as essays by documenta 14 curator Dieter Roelstraete and art historian José de Nordenflycht Concha.

Published by Sternberg Press, the book (148 pages) will be available, in English, in April 2017, at €22. ISBN 978-3-95679-322-6. Pre-order through the publisher’s website: sternberg-press.com