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Across Frontiers
Hispanic Crafts of New Mexico
(San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1998)

Description: At last, a beautiful, authoritative survey of the thriving Hispanic craft movement of the Southwest. Tracing the roots and revival of arts brought to Mexico and the US by Spanish settlers, this book includes over 150 photographs representing the work of more than 80 contemporary artists..

Gorgeous chapters on weaving, furniture making, straw and tin arts, and saantos (the traditional rendering of Chatholic saints) reveal how these historic crafts have become today's living arts.

Interviews and a thoughtful text by Dexter Cirillo illuminate the rich cultural history of the region where frontiers overlapped and intermingled to produce a unique local aesthetic. This important book is the first to do justice to modern artists working in the 400 year-old tradition of Hispanic crafts.

Written in collaboration with Nancy Pletka Benkof.
Photography by Eric Swanson.

"Across Frontiers wonderfully captures the spirit and work of our contemporary artists." Rudolfo Anaya