Rien Monshouwer, 'Beeld', 1994

Center of The Hague: Spui - Grote Marktstraat - Kalvermarkt

Rien Monshouwer (1947) has left a number of remarkable traces in public space. Some of these are permanent, some temporary. The common thread in the artist's artistic interventions is his research into the effect of words, colors, meanings and forms on the environment in which they appear. He reports his findings in the form of sculptures, paintings and installations. These include both site-specific interventions and visual art that is not tied to a particular place.

In 1996, in the library of the new city hall in The Hague, Monshouwer realized an installation in the form of a (library) ladder placed against a wall. On that wall are photographs of private bookcases. With his pedestal sculpture, Monshouwer is following a different trajectory. With this pedestal sculpture, he makes visible the relationship between word and image. The artist plays with the mutual differences between word images and pictorial signs. He transforms the word into image. As a result, the concept of visual language literally takes shape. But the artist goes one step further. His “word sculpture” is a monument to language and at the same time, the structure of bronze manifests itself as an open architectural construction.

Monshouwer deliberately chose a rigid design. The open construction of the stacked letters B-E-E-L-D has created a kind of tower or column that keeps changing its capacity from different points of view. From certain angles, the word has even become such an image that it is no longer recognizable.