Skip to content
Home/ Unbound: Narrative Art of the Plains
Unbound: Narrative Art of the Plains

Unbound: Narrative Art of the Plains

by Unbound: Narrative Art of the Plains
No customer reviews yet ISBN 9781913875480 GILES

New publication celebrates the dynamic tradition of narrative art among Native nations of the American Great Plains.

Unbound shows the full expression of Plains narrative art, from historical hides, muslins, and ledger books to contemporary works. Illustrating everything from war deeds and ceremonial events to family life, Indigenous identity, and pop culture, the artworks are as diverse as the individuals who created them.

Early narrative warrior-artists recorded their battle exploits on buffalo-hide shirts, and robes. In the late nineteenth century, as trade broadened, artists painted elaborate scenes of battles and ceremonies on large muslin tipi liners. When ledger books became available, artists filled their pages with narrative drawings. Native artists began reviving "ledger art" in the 1970s, creating a vibrant form that takes on contemporary topics, uses a variety of media, and is widely collected.

Organized chronologically, Unbound juxtaposes traditional works from the National Museum of the American Indian's (NMAI's) renowned collection with drawings and paintings commissioned from eleven contemporary Native artists. The book accompanies an acclaimed exhibition of the same title that appeared in 2016 at the museum's New York venue and in summer 2024 in the Washington, DC, museum.

About the author

Product details

BrandGILES
Pub dateMar 5, 2024
ISBN-101913875482
ISBN-139781913875480
Hardcover144.0 pages
LanguageEnglish
Dimensions10.5 × 0.75 × 8.5 in
Weight2 lb
Last updated 2026-07-27 01:43
$27.99 $39.95 29% off
You save $11.96 · list price $39.95
Only 16 left in stock — order soon
Delivery by Monday, September 14, 2026
Qty
Sign in to Add to Saved list
Free delivery on orders over $35.
15-day returns. Any reason.
Secure checkout. We never store card details.

Readers who bought this also bought

More from Indigenous Art of the Americas
See all
Native North American Art
Berlo, Janet Catherine
$31.99
Native North American Art (Revised)
Berlo, Janet Catherine
$114.64
Toi Te Mana: An Indigenous History of Maori Art
Brown, Deidre
$38.42
Object Lives and Global Histories in Northern North America: Material Culture in Motion, C.1780-1980
Object Lives and Global Histories in Northern North America explores how close, collaborative looking can discern the traces of contact, exchange, and movement of objects and give them a life and political power in complex cross-cultural histories. Red River coats, prints of colonial places and peoples, Indigenous-made dolls, and an Englishwoman's collection provide case studies of art and material culture that correct and give nuance to global and imperial histories. The result of a collaborative research process involving Indigenous and non-Indigenous contributors, this book looks closely at the circumstances of making, use, and circulation of these objects: things that supported and defined both Indigenous resistance and colonial and imperial purposes. Contributors re-envision the histories of northern North America by focusing on the lives of things flowing to and from this vast region between the eighteenth and the twentieth centuries, showing how material culture is a critical link that tied this diverse landscape to the wider world. An original perspective on the history of northern North American peoples grounded in things, Object Lives and Global Histories in Northern North America provides a key analytical and methodological lens that exposes the complexity of cultural encounters and connections between local and global communities.
$185.10
Object Lives and Global Histories in Northern North America: Material Culture in Motion, C.1780-1980
Object Lives and Global Histories in Northern North America explores how close, collaborative looking can discern the traces of contact, exchange, and movement of objects and give them a life and political power in complex cross-cultural histories. Red River coats, prints of colonial places and peoples, Indigenous-made dolls, and an Englishwoman's collection provide case studies of art and material culture that correct and give nuance to global and imperial histories. The result of a collaborative research process involving Indigenous and non-Indigenous contributors, this book looks closely at the circumstances of making, use, and circulation of these objects: things that supported and defined both Indigenous resistance and colonial and imperial purposes. Contributors re-envision the histories of northern North America by focusing on the lives of things flowing to and from this vast region between the eighteenth and the twentieth centuries, showing how material culture is a critical link that tied this diverse landscape to the wider world. An original perspective on the history of northern North American peoples grounded in things, Object Lives and Global Histories in Northern North America provides a key analytical and methodological lens that exposes the complexity of cultural encounters and connections between local and global communities.
$49.39
Wendat Women's Arts
de Stecher, Annette
$43.57