Courtyard garden: Sampler (ER), 2000

The first European settlers in America hoped to create an Eden for their own time in the New World. Unsurprisingly, the most common subjects in early colonial samplers are episodes in the Eden myth: the Temptation of Eve and the subsequent Expulsion from Paradise. Sampler (ER), the first embroidery I sewed for MADAMI’MADAM, is based on one of those samplers, and the Gardner’s paradisal Courtyard garden seemed a perfect spot for it.

Photograph by Yoav Horesh