How To Do The Flowers

The repetition of images, visual sequences, accidental similarities and free associations form the alphabet of a mysterious language. Ruth van Beek creates collages and books from her archives. The images in this archive are in constant conversation with each other.

A large part of the image archive originates in old textbooks. Books that are designed as a tool, as an advisor for daily occupations. The images mainly show hands demonstrating how something is supposed to be done. Hands digging dirt, making dolls, arranging flowers, cooking. All kinds of everyday actions are shown.

By focusing on the action and detaching from the original context, van Beek encourages the imagination, provoking uncomfortable and uneasy feelings: passive human hands come to life, objects become characters, and abstract forms come to life. . Hundreds of images and tests from van Beek’s image archive are collected. They show a method and in turn create a manual for the creation of new works.