Textile expert and war rug aficionado Max Allen has curated an exhibition of his war rugs at Canada’s Textile Museum which opens April 23. There is a story today from Reuters about the show.

“It’s hard to tell what a particular rug is supposed to mean when its history is hidden and its maker is unknown,” said Max Allen, the curator of the exhibit.

“What’s left are the rugs themselves — eloquent anonymous documents of a world turned upside down,” he added in an interview.
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For Allen all of the rugs are important cultural documents about the events that occurred in that part of the world.

“There’s never been anything like them before and they are war from the ground up,” he said.