Ludo van Halem, Tijs Goldschmidt, Bernard Hulsman, Xavier Tan

Marc Ruygrok, Waar is hier / Where is here

Design: Arlette Brouwers, Illustrated (colour and b/w), Bound, 128 pages, Size: 30 x 24 cm
Text in English and Dutch, ISBN 90-5662-141-6, € 40.00 OUT OF PRINT

Since the beginning of the 1980s, letters, words and short sentences have provided the artist Marc Ruygrok (1953) with the building blocks of his work. During the last 15 years the emphasis has in varying degrees been on monumental spatial work specially made for particular sites. This often consists of three-dimensional letters that combine to form phrases or words.

The book opens with an interview with Marc Ruygrok by Ludo van Halem, curator of modern art at the Stedelijk Museum, Schiedam. This interview can be construed as a walk taken with the artist through a virtual retrospective show of more than 20 years' work (an exhibition that would be impossible in reality as many key sculptures are permanently sited).

Where is here goes on to explore Ruygrok's work from the three vantage points framing the field in which he has operated for two decades: language, image and place. The authors chosen for these texts 'interpret' Ruygrok's work from their own discipline: Xavier Tan (psychoanalist, specialist in language development) on the entirely personal and concise language Ruygrok uses in his work; Tijs Goldschmidt (ethologist and writer) on images and archetypes; and Bernard Hulsman (architecture critic of the Dutch daily NRC Handelsblad) on place and the architectural associations in Ruygrok's work.