Blanket

Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.

Blankets exist in so many places: throughout homes, on our beds, in commercial airliners, in prison cells, silver ones scattered around public streets after marathons … What could we possibly say about them all? Can we even think about the blanket as a discrete thing? This book considers the object potential of blankets by encountering them in multiple formats, times, and spaces—from the battlefield to the hospital, from the home to the grave. The blanket turns out to be a surprising media form, carrying everything from viruses to cultural codes.

Object Lessons is published in partnership with an essay series in the The Atlantic.