Ruth van Beek

Ruth van Beek’s work originates in her ever-growing archive. The images, mainly from old photo books, are her tools, source material and context. Van Beek physically intervenes within the pictures. By folding, cutting, or adding pieces of painted paper, she rearranges and manipulates the image until her interventions reveal the universe that lay within them. Merely by suggestion, van Beek triggers the imagination, and therefore the discomfort, of the viewer: passive human hands are animated, objects turn into characters, and abstract shapes come to life. 

Her work has been shown worldwide in various solo and group exhibitions. Recently, her work was part of exhibitions in London, Antwerp, and San Francisco. RVB Books in Paris has published her books "The Hibernators" (2011) and "The Arrangement" (2013). Her most recent book, "The Levitators" (2016), was launched at the New York Art Book Fair and the Unseen Fair in Amsterdam. "The Arrangement" was on the 2014 shortlist for the Aperture Book Award. Her work is regularly published in magazines, such as Time Magazine, The New York Times, Capricious, Foam Magazine, Fantom Magazine, Kunstbeeld, L’Officiel, IMA Magazin (Japan), It’s Nice That and The British Journal of Photography.