Ruth van Beek

Her works originate from an ever-growing image archive. The images she collects serve as her tools, source material, and context. These images are gathered and stored in boxes and folders, awaiting transformation. Cut out and removed from their original context, they create space for new meanings. This ongoing process of meticulously selecting, cutting, and organizing coincides with the daily rituals of household life. It has become an integral part of her existence, providing the right conditions and frameworks within which she can freely play. The archive acts as a filter between the outside world and the “inside world.” Everything has been photographed and eventually ends up in a book or online. Archaeological treasures and antique vases meet images of lawnmowers and cakes. Instructional pictures from housewives' booklets and surgical manuals wait together in the same folder. For Ruth van Beek, photography acts as an equalizer, where everything becomes the same material. Scale disappears, and distortion and confusion arise. The images from her archive are in constant dialogue with each other. Image repetition, image rhyme, coincidental similarities, and free associations form the alphabet of a mysterious language. They set each other in motion, influence one another, and enter into new relationships. From this dynamic matter, she creates her work.

She makes collages by combining various image elements in a visible construction. Ruth physically intervenes in the photos by folding, cutting, or adding painted areas of color. The artist rearranges and manipulates the image until she reveals a universe that was already contained within the photo. The construction itself always plays a significant role in the meaning of the work. It’s a literal way of animating something, making it alive, and fixing it again in a new form. Simple techniques like folding, slicing, and cutting keep the work organized, with her actions always visible. By "dressing up" photos, making them blush, or adding small bulges, she creates a seductive illusion. The figure, visibly a paper construction—both object and image of an object—appeals to us as something alive, an animated form that evokes emotions such as endearment, disgust, and wonder.

Books and publications are an essential part of Ruth van Beek's work. They are a platform through which her works come to life, travel, and are seen. Her books are emphatically utensils. In contrast to the fragility and uniqueness of the collages, the book stands as a reproducible, affordable, and usable object. She never sees a book as the end point; rather, the books serve as a kind of assignment to herself, leading to new work. For example, the book How to do The Flowers is made up of hundreds of separate images from old instruction books. Brought together, they form a manual for new work, telling a story about how she creates. The hands in the images become her hands, and this absurd manual becomes a self-portrait of her as a maker.

Her work has been shown internationally with exhibitions at Post Books (Tokyo); The Ravestijn Gallery (Amsterdam), De Warande (Belgium), Fraenkel Gallery (San Francisco); Foam (Amsterdam), Les rencontres d’Arles and Fotomuseum Antwerp and has been featured in magazines such as De Gids, The NewYorker, Vogue Magazine, Centrefold Magazine, Foam Magazine, IMA Magazine, The British Journal of Photography, The New York Review of Books, The Aperture Photobook Review, Elephant Magazine and The New York Times.

She has published numerous artist books including The Arrangement (RVB Books, 2013) which was shortlisted for the Aperture Photobook of the Year Award in 2014 and How To Do The Flowers ( APE & Dashwood Books, 2018 ) to widespread acclaim. After her book Eldorado that came out in 2020 she continued working on a second book, The Oldest Thing, with designer Willem Van Zoetendaal, which was released early 2023 and was well received.

Ruth is represented by The Ravestijn Gallery in Amsterdam.