The drawings of Dutch artist Marcel van Eeden (*1965), most recently acknowledged on an international level thanks to solo shows in The Hague and Santiago de Compostela, seem almost old-fashioned at first glance. Since 1993, van Eeden has created thousands of small-format charcoal and pencil drawings on paper, based on motifs taken from magazines, books, or topographical atlases dated from before the year of his birth. The resulting panorama, stretching from 1920 to 1965, is a record of the artist’s obsession with reconstructing a history in which he himself did not participate. Van Eeden calls his life’s work the Encyclopedia of my Death, a title that is only contradictory at first glance: the time before his birth is as important to the artist as the time after his death—a state of total absence.
This book airs the mystery surrounding the figure of Celia, the protagonist in van Eeden’s latest cycle of works, and also features a representative selection of early drawings.

Exhibition schedule: Kunstverein Hannover, July 1–August 20, 2006 · Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Deurle,December 10, 2006–January 21, 2007