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Measles, Polio, Influenza, Hepatitis, and Whooping Cough are prominently displayed on hand towels created by Jodi Colella in her show “Dangerously Close to Home”. Her subversive stitchery is part of a three-person show at the Boston Sculptors Gallery in Boston, MA, which took place in February and March of 2026. The show includes these beautifully embroidered hand towels that ask to be touched, yet offer “mocking exposure to infectious diseases.” Such is the world we live in at the moment, where we are worried about getting measles or polio, diseases that have been all but eradicated in the past.

Four finely stitched “Disobedience Doilies” are part of the show as well, and from afar, look much like something that could be found in a Victorian home. Come up close, though, and phrases such as “Buckets of Swill” (stitched in putrid green cotton), “A Swarm of Flies”, and “Blood Sucker”, all fully illustrated, make the viewer realize that these are not your typical lace doily. The stitching is beautiful, the subject matter less so. No longer are women stitching niceties while men handle the “important work”.

The work in this show is colorful, darkly humorous, and beautifully stitched. Textiles and stitching have been and continue to be mostly women’s work. Yet, Jodi Colella has created traditional handwork for this show that is both interesting and subversive, presenting the viewer with another way to deal with the nonsense of today’s political world.

Also a part of the show are rag rug protest pickets with phrases woven into them, made from yarn and women’s discarded clothing- rough and tumble strips that are woven with their long ends hanging down. The artist adds titles that place the piece in our current time, such as the woven phrase “Fried Icicles” titled “Climate Denial” or “A Large Blister” titled “An Orange Pustule.” It doesn’t take too much time to connect these to today’s world.

Thank you to N.E.W. member Katrina Abbott for her review of this amazing show.