HOPPER&FUCHS – serie

Radilicious 2 is a luxurious coffee table book that brings together Europe’s most visionary vegetable chefs. Twenty top restaurants open their doors and stories, sharing 100 signature dishes that elevate vegetables, fruit, herbs and flowers to gastronomic heights. This second edition is more than a sequel: it is to be a unique reference work on pure plant gastronomy at the highest level. Compelling texts by Mieke De Vylder and breathtaking photography by Wim Demessemaekers make this book a source of inspiration for the cuisine of tomorrow and a collector’s item that should not be missing from any quality bookshop.

Jet black hair, porcelain skin, bright red lips and fingernails; figures gazing intensely into the camera; young men and women posing acrobatically with bizarre props; animals and plants in the glaring light of the camera’s flash, situated in urban landscapes, private spaces, or in nature, among rice fields, lotus ponds, and cacti — Ren Hang’s photographs are painfully provocative, but also inward looking and dreamily surreal. Ren Hang depicts the human body as an abstract form, often in idiosyncratic arrangements and perspectives, combining iconic images of William Shakespeare’s dying Ophelia in a river; of Leda, daughter of a Greek king, and the Swan; and of female nudes seen from behind using a distinctive visual vocabulary that draws on abstraction, Surrealism, Dada, and both historic and contemporary photography. Ren Hang’s analog photographs use a playful, humorous visual language to relate the feelings, desires, fears, and loneliness of a young generation in China.

“With this collection, I attempt to clarify that these are not only textile designs. There is a lot more to it than that: making links to developments in the fields of art, culture and politics is only logical and at least as important. My collection seeks above all to stimulate curiosity when reading (or learning to read) images.” - Marc Van HoeThe Van Hoe Collection - Grammar of Textiles presents The Van Hoe Collection which mainly consists of textile designs, in part weaves and a number of rare books from the period from 1830 to 1990: a period of great artistic and aesthetic changes. Including essays by Mireille Houtzager - Dutch Textile & Costume historian and Johan Valcke, Hoanry Director, Design Flanders, and others.Text in English and Dutch.

Arpaïs Du Bois’ book, Feue La Joyeuseté, further opens the door to her intense universe. The publication, designed by un’dercast, combines her output on paper from the last four years. Extensively introduced by Damien Sausset and including a letter by Philippe Van Cauteren (director of SMAK, Ghent), this book is the ultimate successor of her previous publications - all of them specific gems, both for their concept as for their design. Feue La Joyeuseté takes you on a road trip inside the artist’s brain and makes you a spectator, a witness instead of a passer-by. With more than 450 works on paper, it is opulently illustrated.A soft voice, almost a whisper in the noise of the world. A soft voice that tells of time standing still, of wanderings of the soul, of trials of the heart. And about the impending thunder or the breeze that makes the canopy sway. A soft voice in which the suspicion of death roars as fiercely as the vibrant hopes of everyday life. Anyone willing to listen to it will hear all this in the sentences of Arpaïs Du Bois. For this 'secret' artist writes words, loose thoughts or snippets of text on sheets of paper that still shiver from the colours they have drawn. No beautiful poems or heroic stories here. The power of these words lies in something quite different. How do you draw with and against language?Text in English, French and Dutch.

Real Life is introduced and curated by Wells Fray-Smith. It is published in collaboration with Gallery Sofie Van de Velde on the occasion of the group exhibition Real Life. The publication gathers works by Ilse D’Hollander, Lois Dodd, Christopher Colm Morrin, Jesse Murry, Heidrun Rathgeb, Peter Shear, Trevor Shimizu, and Frank Walter, presenting a dialogue across generations and geographies around painting’s enduring engagement with lived experience. The book explores how these artists, much like Ilse D’Hollander herself, use paint to address reality in its most porous, poetic, and capacious sense. Whether working through figuration or abstraction, their practices blur the boundaries between pigment and picture, illusion and observation, the tangible and the transcendental. At its heart Ilse D’Hollander’s quiet yet profound vision. Through sketchbooks and paintings from 1988 onward, she offered intimate glimpses of her daily surroundings — a window frame, a stairway, a cat — each rendered with the same precision and restraint that define her painting. These drawings were not preparatory studies but complete reflections on perception itself, acts of seeing that transformed the ordinary into the contemplative.

Summer Blue is a field exploration. The setting is summer, the feeling is blue. Peter H. Waterschoot works his way around romantic scenery using l'heure bleue and blue neon, turning the real into the unreal. More and more exotics pop up, the aesthetic becomes uncanny, and the garden becomes unkempt until it finally blurs into impenetrable wilderness. The quiet voyage reminds us of a theatre backdrop, a midsummer night's dream, Alice, or even Where the Wild Things Are, but at its core, a personal story lies hidden. The book contains 96 images with field notes by the photographer and an essay by Prof. Jürgen Pieters (Ghent University).Text in English and French.

The visual art in Ziltes was created from a mixture of oxygen and salt during the active time in the artist's practice. The creative result suggests a conscious and radical act of resistance by the artist as a human being against linear time, a time that moves forward too fast for anyone who captures life. Virginie Platteau wrote nine poems (FR/ NL /EN) that are scattered throughout the pages and written in dialog with the artworks. Bernadette Messiaen has been practicing art for over forty years, however this is the first time she is coming out as an artist.Text in English, French and Dutch.

This artist's book, a catalogue of a museum without walls, reads like an account of a work under construction in response to a commission in a former coalfield. Joëlle Tuerlinckx guides us through the studio’s archives, and through the development of a thought process and culminates in the inventory of the M.M. collection (‘Musée de la Mémoire’ or ‘Museum of Memory’). Building on the great classic of the inventory catalogue and encompassing 'all of J.T.'s work', she presents 'a museum in itself'. While the book is originally connected to 'La Triangulaire de Cransac', a monumental work of art in the small town of Aveyron, France, it also puts into perspective the evolution of the museum in its relationship with the artist and the book. Joëlle Tuerlinckx reminds us that if the museum is compared to a book because of its internal organisation, then a book can be compared to a museum because of its systematics and its method of contemplating the object.Text in French. Introduction and colophon translated into English.

Mark Rietveld (1969-2022) was known in Antwerp for his photography in which he photographed the underground music scene and art world. At concerts, Mark paid equal attention to what was happening on the periphery of the stage, his camera unobtrusively at the ready, in between chatting here and there. He was part of the furniture he had chosen as his subject. A few days after such an evening, a careful selection appeared online, giving those absent a glimpse of what they had missed. For those who delve further into his oeuvre, you will find a photographer for whom the whole world could be a wondrous subject: his archive is full of hushed moorland scenes, torn hoarfrost floors, still lifes, cats, parks in the snow, timeless figures in Prague or Paris and domestic scenes, ... Mark photographed, in short, with a great deal of love, his entire biotope.

This book was published on the occasion of the exhibition HYBRIDS Composite creatures from fables, myths and legends from 9 June 2024 - 17 November 2024 in cultuurhuis / Art Centre de Warande, Turnhout - België/Belgium.Fantastic creatures from myths, sagas and legends are often hybrids, composed of different, often very varied animals. Frequently, they also appear to be a mixture of humans and animals. Such representations and descriptions of hybrid creatures occur in all cultures around the world and have existed since ancient times. This publication reads like a wondrous journey into a grand Wunderkammer.Text in English and Dutch.

Lieven Lefere (°1978, Roeselare) is an artist who plays with the complex relationship between the photographic image and reality. Lefere works extremely meticulously, in a particularly slow process. He carefully manipulates all the parameters that make a photo what it is. The process often starts months before the photo is taken. He starts from an extensive research, with a multitude of reference points. Sometimes he builds sets and scenes himself from that research or from his memories. He constructs his images with scale and framing, models the space, makes models, chooses the incidence of light. The sets disappear or become a spatial part of the work.

Linda Vinck is a visual artist with a long-standing and sustainably developed body of work centered around rhythm and pattern formation. The materiality of her artworks strengthened by the mixed media techniques the artist uses, demonstrate her fascination by the interplay of predictable and unpredictable micro-forms in nature, psychocorporeal transformations, dance, and contemporary composers. The impact and integration of colour and spirituality in her practice refer to her yearlong residencies in Cape Verde, South Africa, and Japan.For almost five decades Linda Vinck has been developing a consistent body of work around rhythm and pattern formation. This comprehensive publication contextualises and presents this artist's oeuvre, and introduces her prolific language as a visual artist in relation to her unique artistic identity.Text in English and Dutch.

the bear and the butterfly by Ruth van Haren Noman presents a captivating series of watercolour paintings that explore transformation, intuition, and the interplay between strength and fragility. Drawing inspiration from nature and human emotion, Noman creates fluid, expressive compositions where bears and butterflies serve as central motifs, symbolising resilience, change, and the delicate balance of opposing forces. Each painting invites viewers into a meditative dialogue, offering space for reflection and introspection.The book includes insights from interviews and texts by the artist herself. With high-quality reproductions, the bear and the butterfly highlights Noman’s mastery of watercolour techniques, her sensitivity to colour and form, and her ability to convey narrative through abstraction. The book is an essential volume for collectors, curators, and enthusiasts of contemporary painting and visual storytelling, emphasising the transformative power of art to explore emotion, intuition, and the natural world.

Against the Tide is a contemplative photographic narrative by Wouter Vanhees, exploring the rhythm, resilience, and contradictions of contemporary Mumbai. Through a poetic balance of structure and emotion, Vanhees documents a city in constant motion — vibrant yet fragile, chaotic yet deeply human. His work reflects on how individuals find harmony amid the tension of modern life and urban transformation.This personal reflection forms the heart of the project — an intimate dialogue between sound, image, and emotion. Inspired by the music of Pacifist and the friendship of Sidharth, Apurv, Ashish, Utkarsh, and Varun, Vanhees constructs a visual story that feels both deeply personal and universally resonant.Against the Tide becomes more than a photographic journey; it is a meditation on balance, belonging, and the search for stillness within the noise of modern existence.

Verstrengeld ("entwined") by Dutch photographer Floor Martens is a poetic visual meditation on the interconnectedness of humans, nature, and time, addressing the 'zeitgeist' of a younger generation. Through a deeply personal lens, Martens explores the transformation and decay that define all living matter, tracing parallels between the human body and the natural world. Her photographs — depicting (often naked) bodies, trees, flowers, and skies — capture the delicate balance between fragility and endurance, intimacy and distance, life and loss. Employing analogue techniques alongside written text, sound, and sculptural gestures, Martens creates an immersive, sensorial experience that transcends the photographic image. Each composition suggests a metaphysical dialogue, where the veins of a leaf mirror the lines of a hand, and the cycles of growth and decay reveal beauty in impermanence. Verstrengeld reflects Martens’ commitment to slowing down perception, allowing the ordinary to emerge as extraordinary. This tril-ingual publication is both a visual elegy and a philosophical inquiry — an invitation to contemplate our entanglement with the living world.Text in English, Dutch and French.

Singular Beauty is the debut work as an autonomous series by Australian photographer Jai Odell, based in NYC, exploring the intimate, cinematic, and deeply human dimensions of contemporary beauty. Known for his refined visual language and sensitivity to character, Odell captures faces and identities that challenge conventional ideals. The book presents a curated collection of portraits that celebrate (androgyn) individuality, imperfection, and emotional authenticity. With a background in film and art direction, Odell brings a cinematic approach to still imagery — balancing quiet minimalism with a strong narrative presence. Singular Beauty is both a visual study and a reflection on the shifting concept of beauty in modern culture. The influence of David Sims is still ghosting around through his portraiture.

Hunting & Collecting offers an in-depth look into the poetic and conceptual world of Belgian artist Stief DeSmet, whose work explores the complex relationship between nature, culture, and human intervention. In his practice, DeSmet moves as "a collector" seamlessly between painting, sculpture, performance, and installation, creating visual narratives that oscillate between irony, nostalgia, and critical reflection.Through a series of striking works and thoughtful essays, Hunting & Collecting examines the artist’s ongoing dialogue with the natural world — not as an untouched ideal, but as a space shaped and reshaped by human desire and imagination. DeSmet’s art embodies the tension between the longing for a pure, utopian nature and the realities of contemporary, consumption-driven life.Richly illustrated and conceptually layered, this monograph offers a comprehensive insight into DeSmet’s oeuvre, tracing his evolution from the hunter and urban observer to rural storyteller. With contributions by curators and art critics, Hunting & Collecting captures an artist whose work stands as both a critique and a celebration of humankind’s enduring fascination with nature. Thoreau's Walden is continuous inspiration for the artist. He even built a replica of Thoreau's cabin in his artistic garden.

This small publication is part of Luc Deleu & T.O.P. office: Founder’s Choice as a reader, exploring the visionary architectural and urban concepts of Luc Deleu and his long-standing practice T.O.P. office (Turn On Planning). For over five decades, Deleu has redefined the relationship between architecture, society, and the planet, operating at the intersection of art, urbanism, and environmental ethics. His radical, speculative proposals — ranging from floating cities to planetary-scale planning — provoke reflection on global responsibility and sustainable futures.Together with T.O.P. office, Luc Deleu spent over half a century building an architectural and artistic oeuvre across a variety of media. At the same time, he critically reflected on his own practice as well as on the role of architecture and urban planning in general. As both reader and writer, he searched for the words to clarify and substantiate his position, resulting in a unique body of texts. Luc Deleu: A Reader brings together his most important texts, lectures, and articles for the first time – from the Orbanist Manifesto (1980) to Darling Springs: A Call for Beauty (2024). The book opens with a conversation between Hans Ulrich Obrist, Nico Dockx, and Luc Deleu.A must-have for architects, theorists, and artists interested in the evolving dialogue between design, ethics, and ecology.

Warmer than the Sun by Elise Corten is a deeply intimate analogue photographic exploration of the mother-daughter relationship. Over an extended period, Corten documents her mother through portraits and still life imagery, revealing moments of closeness, dialogue, and mutual discovery. The work navigates the delicate balance between personal and universal experience, portraying the mother not solely as a parental figure but as an individual with her own identity, desires, and transformations. Through daily rituals and tender observations, Corten captures both the physical and emotional changes experienced by her mother, while simultaneously reflecting on her own perspective as a daughter and photographer. The resulting visual narrative is at once sensual, empathetic, and candid, offering viewers an immersive insight into the complexities of maternal intimacy. Previous essays by art historian Lise De Ganck contextualise the series within contemporary photographic and conceptual practices, emphasising its significance in exploring family, identity, and the passage of time. Featured internationally in publications such as Lenscratch, Analog Magazine, and Photobook Journal, Warmer than the Sun is a compelling work for photography lovers, curators, and readers, especially mums and daughters, interested in contemporary portraiture, autobiographical art, and visual storytelling.Text in English, Dutch and French.

NUEVA VISION – Graphic Design for the Arts in Argentina 1940–1976 presents a comprehensive study of Argentina’s vibrant visual culture during a transformative period for the arts. Through meticulous documentation and high-quality reproductions, authors Jelle Jespers, Andrea Gergich, and Rubén Fontana explore how graphic design shaped cultural institutions, theatre productions, and visual arts communication. The book highlights the creativity and innovation of designers who merged European avant-garde influences with local artistic traditions, producing works that were visually striking, socially engaged, and culturally resonant. Featuring over 250 images, including posters, exhibition catalogues, and ephemeral graphics, this volume offers a nuanced understanding of the intersection between design, performance, and institutional identity. Essays by leading scholars contextualise the works within Argentina’s social, political, and artistic climate, providing critical insights into the country’s mid-20th-century design heritage. Nueva Vision is an essential resource for designers, art historians, academics and students, curators, and collectors interested in Latin American modernism and the global history of graphic arts.Text in English and Spanish.

Tales in Ink by Rob Walbers and Bart Luijten is a visually and conceptually rich exploration of identity, creativity, and self-expression through the art of tattooing. This loose-leaf publication brings together a series of intimate portraits and conversations with renowned figures from the creative world from Tokyo to Los Angeles, who share personal stories about how their tattoos have become integral to whom they are. Each interview delves into the symbolic meaning behind their ink, revealing how body art can reflect transformation, personality, memory, or artistic philosophy. Beyond documentation, the book’s graphic design introduces a new visual dialogue, merging photography, typography, and illustration into a layered aesthetic that treats each page as a living canvas — a “new tattoo” in itself. By intertwining word, image, and design, Tales in Ink transcends the boundaries of traditional portraiture and celebrates tattoo culture as a profound expression of creative identity and individuality.Text in English and Japanese.

#WHATPATIENTSREADAFTERHEARTSURGERY by Luc Haenen is a compelling photographic study of the post-operative experience of heart surgery patients. Through a combination of documentary imagery and conceptual observation, Haenen captures the private and often overlooked moments of recovery, exploring how patients navigate time, solitude, and reflection in hospital and home settings. Central to the work is the exploration of what patients read during convalescence — books, magazines, digital content — revealing insights into their mental and emotional landscapes as they heal. The project balances intimacy with conceptual rigour, highlighting the intersection between medical environments and personal agency. Richly sequenced and illustrated, the book emphasises both the universality and individuality of recovery, offering viewers a nuanced understanding of human resilience. #WHATPATIENTSREADAFTERHEARTSURGERY is an essential contribution to empathetic storytelling, and will resonate with audiences interested in health, human experience, and visual culture.

VIVID by Joke Raes is an immersive exploration of the dynamic relationship between art, nature, and human perception. Drawing on organic forms and natural motifs, Raes creates tactile, large-scale installations that blur the boundaries between sculpture, drawing, and environment. The works in VIVID invite viewers into a contemplative space, revealing hidden layers of colour, texture, and form while reflecting on humanity’s impact on natural ecosystems. Utilising re-appropriated materials and intuitive gestures, Raes constructs visual narratives that evoke both wonder and introspection. The book accompanies her eponymous exhibition at Zebrastraat, Ghent, presenting her oeuvre across two floors of expansive installations, including wall sculptures, delicate figures, and immersive environments. Richly illustrated, VIVID captures the interplay of light, material, and organic shapes, offering readers an intimate encounter with Raes’ vision. An essay contextualises her practice within contemporary environmental art, emphasising her unique ability to harmonise human creativity with ecological awareness. VIVID is essential for collectors, curators, and enthusiasts of contemporary visual culture, sculpture, and ecological art.Text in English and Dutch.

Phantasmagoria presents the imaginative and subversive world of Belgian artist Raymond Minnen, whose sculptural practice has, for over five decades, transformed everyday objects into uncanny, humorous, and poetic assemblages. Working at the intersection of pop culture, surrealism, and contemporary sculpture, Minnen reconfigures familiar materials into new visual narratives that question consumption, desire, and identity. His works blur the boundaries between the artificial and the organic, the absurd and the profound, inviting viewers into a world where objects gain unexpected life and meaning. Through richly illustrated pages and critical texts by historian Rik Van Braband and Karel Van Beeck, this monograph offers a comprehensive insight into Minnen’s visual language and the evolution of his sculptural imagination. Spanning a career of more than fifty years, Phantasmagoria celebrates an artist who challenges our perception of the everyday and turns the banal into something extraordinary.Text in English and Dutch.

Vulva Obscura by Hanne Lamon is a groundbreaking photographic exploration with a camera obscura of female anatomy, intimacy, and diversity. By portraying the intimate spaces of more than 100 women, Lamon challenges societal shame and highlights the unique beauty of every vulva — from the 'mons pubis' and labia to the clitoris and vaginal entrance. The project celebrates variation, empowering participants and viewers alike to embrace bodily differences without taboo. Lamon’s images are both intimate and artistic, blending meticulous composition with a conceptual focus that situates the vulva as a source of life force and identity. The book has been presented at GUM Ghent (University Museum), underscoring its relevance within contemporary feminist and photographic discourse. With rich, high-quality photography and a socially resonant concept, Vulva Obscura is an essential volume for art collectors, curators, and readers engaged in gender studies, contemporary art, and the exploration of body positivity.Text in English and Dutch.

Skin Fields is a visceral, contemporary photobook that imagines the body as a site of emotional, psychological, and social inscription. Rooted in Domènech’s ongoing investigation into intimacy and identity, the work presents a series of images that traverse the boundaries between vulnerability and desire, presence and absence. Emerging from a practice shaped by documentary photography and photobook storytelling, Skin Fields reflects the artist’s interest in lived experience and the traces left by time, memory, and personal transformation. With an essay from Pol Guasch, the photographs construct a visual language that merges poetics with raw immediacy, inviting viewers into deeply personal yet universally resonant spaces. The photos in this book were taken in Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Morocco, Spain and Syria between 2018 and 2024.Text in English, French, Spanish, Catalan.

When the Fog Comes Down is a comprehensive exploration of the practice of Belgian artist Chris Meulemans, authored by Koen Leemans. The book delves into Meulemans’ career-long investigation into the human urge to manipulate and control our environment — a theme she navigates through a unique blend of figurative elements and abstract techniques. Her recent paintings centre on botanical motifs, using plants and flowers as a vehicle to evoke the fragility of both nature and the structures of everyday life.In many of Meulemans’ works, the image seems either to be emerging or dissolving. It is as if one is looking at something that has not yet assumed a fixed form, or whose contours are already disintegrating. This indeterminacy is deliberate. She does not paint to represent something precisely, but to evoke a state: a moment between control and surrender, an in-between phase in which process and form become visible together, and every interpretation remains open.The publication highlights Meulemans’ characteristic use of grid patterns as a discrete reference to science and the human drive to categorise and study. Through a process of intuitive layering and “visual-poetic” construction, her works create an uncomfortable yet mesmerising context that invites viewers to project their own narratives. Released in conjunction with her exhibition at CC De Werft (Exhibition space de Halle), this book situates Meulemans’ work within the contemporary art landscape, emphasising her movement between various media — including painting, drawing, and collage.Text in English and Dutch.

El Pulso del Agua (The Pulse of the Water) documents the ambitious painting expeditions of Belgian artist Nils Verkaeren across the diverse landscapes of Colombia, eschewing the traditional studio for a “contemporary plein air” approach. Over several years, Nils Verkaeren travelled along these waterways, from the Magdalena and the Cauca to the remote rivers of the Amazon basin, working directly within the landscapes they shape. El Pulso del Agua brings together paintings and reflections that emerged from these encounters. Rather than approaching water as a motif, Verkaeren understands it as a principle, a force through which landscape reveals itself as movement, erosion, sediment, and time. Painting becomes a way of reading the territory, of entering the slow pulse of rivers that have shaped Colombia for millennia. The resulting canvases are more than mere representations; they are physical records of the journey, often carried through harsh terrain and shaped by the local climate, movement, and geography.With contributions from Colombian ecologist and academic Brigitte Baptiste and art historian Eva Wuytjens, this monograph traces Verkaeren’s immersive process, in which the act of painting becomes inseparable from the acts of travel and research. The book highlights Verkaeren’s unique ability to merge sensory experience with the natural world. By integrating the physical conditions of his environment into his work, Verkaeren transcends classical landscape traditions to create a visceral, personal dialogue with nature. This publication serves as a vital record of his exploration into how place and time shape the contemporary image.

La Vie d’un Artiste, To Disappear with a Trace unfolds as a constructed notebook rather than a conventional monograph. Initiated through a message from Jean Claude Wouters to Tokyo-based journalist and curator Watashino Kage. The publication gathers archival materials, documents, and images into an open-ended constellation — one that may stimulate both the spirit and the body of an art student, as well as the art connoisseur. Its design remains minimal and effortless, with elements assembled loosely and intuitively, allowing meaning to emerge through every possible combination.As an artist of restraint and sobriety, Jean Claude Wouters evolves toward increasing discretion in his expressions. With this in mind, the central theme of the book is established: a journey from physicality to the utmost lightness. He began as a ballet dancer and moved across multiple forms — painting, filmmaking, and photography — continually pushing their boundaries, to the point of producing photographic portraits that are barely perceptible and practicing painting at its limits, almost without paint. His late activity being a performance/class, “The Practice – je suis allé m’ébattre à l’origine de toute chose”, in his own words: “At last, maybe, I touch the non-physicality of the art piece, and if there is art in the process, it lives in what the participants take away.”Text in English and Japanese.