‘Handwork’ book celebrates 250 years of American craft and material culture

NEW YORK, NY.- Handwork: Handcrafted Objects that Made America is a visually stunning, deeply inspiring celebration of America’s spirit through ordinary, surprising, and overlooked handcrafted objects spanning more than 250 years. The official book of Handwork: Celebrating American Craft 2026—Craft in America’s yearlong, nationwide initiative marking 250 years since the Declaration of Independence featuring hundreds of museum exhibitions and events, a four-part PBS docuseries, and specially designed educational components—Handwork is essential reading for anyone curious about American history, design, material culture, or craft.

Edited by Emily Zaiden, director and lead curator of the Craft in America Center, with a foreword by Carol Sauvion, the visionary behind the Peabody Award–winning PBS series Craft in America, Handwork takes readers on a journey through time and across the multiplicity of cultures that have made America, uncovering the powerful stories behind objects that shaped American life. The book groups handmade objects into four curated sections—DWELL, FEED, FURNISH, ADORN—and highlights objects that reflect innovation, resistance, artistry, and community, from a nineteenth-century Kiowa cradleboard to an antique Hawaiian papa he’enalu (surfboard) and a prototype for an iconic sneaker.

Handwork includes illuminating texts from nearly 30 experts nationwide that accompany each object, emphasizing overlooked narratives and the underrepresented artists who helped define American life through their craft. Contemporary makers featured throughout show how craft traditions live on, a testament to the human ingenuity that continues to shape American culture. An introduction by Zaiden also speaks to her editorial approach, “placing on equal footing the everyday and ordinary, the overlooked and disregarded, and the exceptional and acclaimed.”

With vibrant full-color photography, an engaging layout, and a thorough, inclusive approach, Handwork is as captivating and eye-opening as the objects and artists it celebrates.

Emily Zaiden is director and curator of the Craft in America Center in Los Angeles where she has organized over eighty multidisciplinary contemporary art, craft, and design exhibitions for the center and partner museum venues. Zaiden oversees public programs, a K-12 education initiative, and digital projects, including the creation of the online Craft Video Dictionary. Her research focuses on craft processes, materiality, functional design, and cultural art, particularly from a historical lens. Zaiden has an M.A. from the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture.

Carol Sauvion is an American crafts scholar and creator of the Peabody Award–winning PBS series Craft in America. Sauvion was the founding director of Craft in America and for over forty-five years was the director of Freehand, her Los Angeles gallery specializing in functional craft.