technique that creates in昀椀nite possibilities for what can in codi昀椀ed colors to symbolize numbers and other values be described as textile calligraphy, a kind of writing with that helped pre-Hispanic societies collect data and keep threads the artist sought to explore. records for calendar, tax, or census purposes (see 昀椀g. 1). As art historian Maria Müller-Schareck points out, the Khipus, along with the vast geometrized iconography of word “text” is derived from the Latin word textus, or “woven.” Andean textiles, acted often as substitutes for writing, with their portability making them accessible and easy to dis Both texts and fabrics, then, connect patterns of thought - 24 into a material with a speci昀椀c rhythm. Albers was inter- seminate. In Red Meander (1954; 昀椀g. 34), Albers uses broad, ested in the transmission of information and knowledge mazelike lines to suggest an encrypted pattern. The motif of through encrypted scripts of threaded patterns, 昀椀nding the meander recurs in her work in inventive ways. parallels in the visual coding developed in the Andes to Anni and Josef’s expression of kinship in 1953—we are overcome the lack of a written language. The khipu, for not alone after all—coincided in time with the training of a younger generation of artists and designers who simi example, was a mnemonic device consisting of a series of - cotton or wool cords knotted at regular intervals and dyed larly found connection and inspiration in ancient Andean Fig. 33. Anni Albers. Pasture, 1958. Mercerized cotton, 14 × 15 ⼀挀 in. (35.6 × 39.4 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Purchase, Edward C. Moore Jr. Gift, 1969 (69.135) 33