What Quilts Mean Now

Sanford Biggers, A Deeper Form of Chess, 2017, quilt, assorted textiles, polystyrene, aqua resin, and tar.
The goal of the new exhibition “Fabric of a Nation: American Quilt Stories” (on view through January 17, 2022) at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, seems—at first glance—straightforward enough. The show reflects the history of the United States over the course of some three hundred years through fifty-eight objects drawn primarily from the MFA’s own collection.