Melissa Cody: Webbed Skies

Melissa Cody (No Water Mesa, Arizona, Navajo Nation, United States, 1983) is a Diné/Navajo textile artist whose work blends traditional Navajo tapestry techniques with bold, innovative themes and contemporary references. In Navajo cosmology, weaving is a technology conveyed to the Navajo people by the sacred character of Na’ashjéii Asdzáá, the Spider Woman. An heir to this traditional knowledge, Cody is a fourth-generation artist. This is the first monographic book on Cody’s work, arriving in tandem with her first major international exhibition, organized by MASP and MoMA PS1. The book features commissioned essays and reproductions of the artist’s works spanning her entire career. The title comes from Cody’s work Under Cover of Webbed Skies (2021), which thematically merges the history of Navajo weaving, the representation of its ancestral territory, and the passing of knowledge between generations since the Spider Woman’s gift.