What an odd thing a shelf is. A shelf is just a shelf really, right? Put a thing on it, though, and it is immediately transformed into something else. Once we begin to populate our shelves with objects – whether with precious memorabilia, beautiful images, feathers, or found knots – the whole thing becomes something else. We put objects on shelves to somehow honor them or know them better; we may even wonder if time will reveal something more about them. We might also believe that they could withstand the test of time – simply by being placed on a shelf.

I walked into the M S Rezny Gallery located in the proposed Distillery District of downtown Lexington, Kentucky and immediately thought the exhibit Connecting Fibers was challenging. There is some fine work here, but I had to question why I felt so bothered. On one hand, the exhibit acknowledges the status that fiber art has attained over the years. On the other hand, it denies it by returning us to the age-old debate of art versus craft