Everyone has heard of poems that leap off the page, but few works literally do.

University of Wisconsin graduate Katherine Keuhn embeds texts in cloth with her hand-sewing that receive an added dimension both physically and in the gravitas of the words.

Now at the Chazen, Keuhn sews various texts, mostly poems, into pristine white or dyed cloths. With meticulous detail she sews each letter with brilliant cloth.

The effect that it has on the works is profound, most notably in a series of letters between two poets that were also Holocaust survivors.

Kuehn take excerpts of the letters between the now-deceased poets Nelly Sachs and Paul Celan. Over the course of the twenty or so excerpts viewers get to delve into the friendship of two beautiful, suffering souls, albeit only from the perspective of Kuehn.

The appearance of them in the white cloth reinforces the theme of pure friendship.

Another standout is the dangling indigo-dyed cloth that hangs in the middle of one of show rooms. Only a few stanzas of the poem are viewable, but the height of the cloth give it a larger-than-life appearance.

For fans of literature and/or history, “Close Works” is a must visit.