Mateo Kries, Mea Hoffmann, Zoë Ryan, 2025
BOOK
The Shakers: A World in the Making looks at the ideas and practices of a community that shaped one of the longest-running utopian experiments in American history. Founded in the late eighteenth century, the Shakers based their daily life on principles of equality, pacifism, shared work, and ethical discipline. Every action and every object helped express a collective vision.
The book brings together essays, interviews, artistic contributions, and photographs to build a layered account of how Shaker material culture connects with design thinking today. Furniture, tools, textiles, and instruments, simple, durable, and made with purpose, continue to influence artists, designers, and architects.
Published alongside the exhibition of the same name at the Vitra Design Museum, each chapter focuses on a different aspect of Shaker production: wooden furniture with balanced proportions, tools shaped by practicality, and interior systems where function and order reflect a deeper sense of meaning.
Shot at the historic Shaker sites of Hancock and Mount Lebanon, the photographs accompany texts by Aaron Betsky, Sarah Margolis-Pineo, Mabel O. Wilson, and others. Designed by A Practice for Everyday Life, the book is carefully composed and pared back, offering new ways to think about the connections between work, spirituality, and form.
The Shakers
The Shakers were a religious and social community that played a distinct role in American history. Formed in eighteenth-century England, they arrived in the American colonies in 1774, led by Mother Ann Lee.
Their way of life was shaped by three central principles: confession, communal living, and celibacy. Over the following decades, they established eighteen settlements between Kentucky and Maine, structured around shared labor, pacifism, and a strong sense of order.
The Shakers are widely recognized for their stripped-back furniture, measured architecture, and a methodical approach to production that was unusual for the time. For the Shakers, work was a form of devotion. Every object they made was defined by precision, durability, and use. Their worldview held design and spirituality in close relation, each reinforcing the other.
Though their presence today is nearly gone, the Shakers’ approach to work and their visual legacy continue to resonate with artists and designers worldwide.
Why the Book is Interesting
The Shakers: A World in the Making offers a clear and considered look at how an eighteenth-century religious community shaped a lasting legacy in design. Guided by principles of equality, shared labor, and spiritual discipline, the Shakers translated their beliefs into objects marked by care, clarity, and purpose.
Through essays, interviews, photographs, and artistic contributions, the book traces the ongoing relevance of their approach. Furniture, tools, textiles, and everyday practices reflect a way of thinking in which form and function are inseparable from values.
The graphic design by A Practice for Everyday Life brings structure and restraint to the publication, allowing the content to speak with quiet precision. The book invites reflection on what it means to make with intention, where beauty arises from use, and design becomes a way of relating to the world.
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Details
Vitra Design Museum
The book is available on Amazon.com >
Hardcover, 248 Pages
978-3945852668
