The things we surround ourselves with in our daily lives are a shadow of who we are. The house we live in, the carpet under our feet, the color of the wallpaper, souvenirs and knick knacks in the closet contain residues of memories and sentiments.

'What speaks to us' is a publication about the oeuvre of visual artist Arjan van Helmond, which offers a broad overview of his work from the past 12 years. The book is a moment of looking back, reflection, collecting and connecting.

De dingen waarm...

Dumas’ first solo show in South Africa after moving to The Netherlands 30 years ago provided occasion for this catalogue. Featured are more than 50 paintings, drawings and prints presented at the exhibition, as well as personal letters, documents and photographs collected by the artist. A selection of the artist’s own writings is included, ranging from her unique commentaries on art to aphoristic writings and poetry that are once insightful, witty and thought-provoking.

Little is known about the personality of Johannes Vermeer, one of the most famous Dutch painters of the 17th century. We do know that he married the Catholic Catharina Bolnes, whose family was closely associated with the Jesuit community in Delft.

In this book, Gregor J.M. Weber, head of visual arts at the Rijksmuseum, shows that Vermeer himself actually pursued a Catholic lifestyle. The relationship between the artistic ambitions of the young Vermeer and his Catholic surroundings is also dis...

Sculpture as a specific medium is rarely investigated within a deeply cultural, philosophical context, nor within visual art itself. Whilst discussions about installation art, performance art, or other 3D art forms are widespread, the discourse on sculpture seems to be stuck in historical, material, or thematic frameworks. This is a loss for our understanding of art in general, and of sculpture in particular. In order to assess contemporary art practices, one should have a better understandin...

RAABJERG by Danish artist Rune Peitersen (1971) explores the changing landscape of northern Jutland (DK) from the last Ice Age until today.

During the 16th-19th centuries, climate change and human extraction of natural resources led to violent sand drift, which transformed the once fertile landscape into a barren wasteland. Different governments – from kings to elected parliaments – enacted laws to try to reverse it. After 200 years, they ‘succeeded’ and started reintroducing plants i...

Productive Archiving discusses a variety of problems archival organizations. It mainly focuses on the following three issues with archival organizations that are usually overlooked: first, the question of inclusion in or exclusion from the archive; second, the loss of individuality and specificity in the archive, the danger of homogenization; and third, that archiving may become a form of pigeonholing, boxing specific identities into a confined space. Avoiding the archive because of these pro...