Includes bibliographical references and index.

1: Fiber art and the struggle for legitimacy: The category of fiber art -- Cultural definitions of textiles and the bauhaus weavers -- Fiber and women's work -- Fiber art, the craft revival of the 1960s and 1970s, and popular craft -- The critical reception of fiber art in the 1960s and 1970s -- Mildred Constantine and the battle for fiber art -- 2: Process art, postminimalism, and materiality: Felt in the work of Robert Morris -- The critical reception of the felts -- String, rope, and cord in the work of Eva Hesse -- The reception of Hesse's work in fiber -- Fiber, tactility, and the boundary between art and non-art -- 3: The feminist politicization of the art/craft divide: Promises and problems of the feminist critique of the hierarchy of art and craft -- Faith Ringgold: "A painter who works in the quilt medium" -- Miriam Schapiro: "The quiet revolution" -- Ringgold, Schapiro, and the art world's appropriation of quilting -- Harmony Hammond: the mythic space of the "feminine stitch" -- Judy Chicago: the vitality of embroidery -- Conclusion: fiber, craft, and contemporary art.