Can we find in the detail, in the stitch and the weave, an ecology of care, a model for activating new forms of life, ones that might reject or reimagine an economic and cultural order based on novelty, disposability, and the monadic self? Can they help us learn to live together in a broken world?

—Brian Goldberg and Kate Irvin, from the preface to Issue 11

Introduction

Barry Schwabsky on painting and repair

From the Files

Linda Catano on the conservation of a 700-year-old Gwaneum painting; Anna Rose Keefe on loss, grief, and a hairwork collar

Double Takes

Thomas Denenberg and Markus Berger describe nostalgia and reuse in a spinning-wheel chair; Lisa Z. Morgan and Liliane Wong parse damage and darns to Kate Kittredge’s stockings; Steven Lubar and Sharma Shields consider the life of a stapled ceramic platter

Artists on Art

Visible Vehicle Repairs by Daniel Eatock; Ramiro Gomez’s On Tenth Avenue; Olivia Laing on Larry Krone’s Then and Now

Portfolio

A gathering of patches, mends, & darns

Object Lessons

Kate Irvin explores repair in an unworn travel coat; Maureen C. O’Brien presents a cautionary tale about reviving Andromache; Brian Goldberg offers four portraits in two boots; Gina Borromeo documents the restoration—and de-restoration—of Hermes; Roberto Lugo offers a note on mattering

How To

Decide whether to repair a repair, with Jessica Urick