In 2005 Nadia Myre began a long-term exploration of how people describe their pain, hurt, healing, and scars with a needle and thread, and paper and pen. What emerged was The Scar Project, a viewer participatory open-lab/installation/exhibition where individuals could sit and ‘sew their wounds’, literal or metaphorical, on one of the canvases provided, and recount whether or not their scars could heal. This work, which consists of close to 500 scarred and sewn canvases and accompanying stories, documents a multitude of voices from all walks of life and age ranges.

Like The Scar Project, this book is a work progress. It is a first attempt to reconcile some of the scars to their stories. The works presented in this collection are as they appear at the George Gustav Heye Center National Museum of American Indian exhibition HIDE: SKIN AS MATERIAL AND METAPHOR.

This publication includes an introductory essay by Amanda J. Graham, and was designed by Rosemary Arroyave.