Marta Editions releases 6–12 prints per year in limited, numbered editions.
Vividly Biomorphic
Dutch artist and bookmaker Ruth van Beek collects imagery for her collages from a variety of historical printed ephemera and vintage publications. For her print with Marta Editions, a trio of original works were made that continue van Beek’s long-running series of objects—including cacti and houseplants—covered in ‘snow.’ Here, a paper cutout of a hefty drift has been placed so that it delicately slumps over the leaves of a borrowed / pilfered image of a houseplant. The composition is then scanned, which both augments the dimensionality of the work and activates the original source material in vividly biomorphic ways: the photograph of the plant—a proxy for the living being—is reanimated by its relationship to the overlaid form. In translating this process to print, a low-sheen, matte foil stamp has been employed—whereby heat and pressure are used to transfer a shape or form onto paper using metal foil—in order to realize van Beek’s generous layer of ‘snow’ and preserve the lines and shadows inherent to its original articulation.
Numbered edition of 200 + 10 AP
Fruit Covered with Snow
Cactus Covered with Snow
Ruth van Beek, Houseplants Covered with Snow (Dashwood Books, 2014).
“In the winter of 2011, I thought about what would happen if snow fell inside the house. In my imagination, I saw all things covered with a fresh layer of snow, like little blankets. I made the first series of Houseplants Covered with Snow, simple collages with a cut-out photo and a piece of white paper. Every now and then, I go back to this idea and I cover something with snow.” — RvB
The artist’s studio in Koog aan de Zaan, Netherlands.
The artist’s studio in Koog aan de Zaan, Netherlands.
Reverse of the original collage: detail of ‘snow’ application.
Front of the original collage.
Initial mixing of spot color, PMS 607 U.
Lithography of existing lithographic halftones.
Ruth van Beek’s Houseplant Covered with Snow on press.
About the Artist
Ruth van Beek (b. 1977) lives and works in Koog aan de Zaan, Netherlands. Her work has been exhibited internationally with Post Books (Tokyo), The Ravestijn Gallery (Amsterdam), De Warande (Brussels), Fraenkel Gallery (San Francisco), Foam (Amsterdam), Les rencontres d’Arles, and Fotomuseum Antwerp. She has taught at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam since 2014. Her work has been featured in publications such as De Gids, The New Yorker, Vogue, Centrefold, Foam, IMA, The British Journal of Photography, The New York Review of Books, The Aperture PhotoBook Review, Elephant, 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, The Cast (New Documents, 2017), and How To Do The Flowers (APE & Dashwood Books, 2018). Her most recent books, Eldorado (2020) and The Oldest Thing (2023), were both published by Van Zoetendaal Publishers. The Oldest Thing was shortlisted for the Aperture PhotoBook of the Year in 2023. Ruth is represented by The Ravestijn Gallery in Amsterdam.
Ruth van Beek. Portrait by Shinji Otani.
The artist’s studio in Koog aan de Zaan, Netherlands.
Ruth van Beek Houseplant Covered with Snow, 2025 Offset Lithograph w/ Matte Foil Stamp 20.0 H × 14.0 W in. (50.8 H × 35.6 W cm)
Edition of 200 + 10 AP
Printing: Lithography, Matte Foil Stamp Printer: Generation Press; Brighton, UK Paper: Munken, Kristall Rough, 170gsm
Original Medium: Collage Original Size: Approx. 10 H × 10 W cm
Full Color + PMS 607 U