‘The Living Surface’, designed by Studio Renate Boere, integrates Lizan Freijsen’s research archive with her masterpieces, offering readers profound insight into the artist’s creative process.

As a partner, Studio Renate Boere collaborated closely with the artist to restructure and refine her extensive research, approaching it from multiple stakeholder’s perspectives: designer, visual storyteller, researcher, educator, and art collector. Our goal was to position Freijsen’s art and studies in contemporary and practical contexts, making them accessible to her prospective audience. As a design strategic studio, we recognised the potential of the book to become an educational resource illustrating Freijsen’s methodologies, serving as a valuable reference for art and design students interested in artistic research. Professionally, the book can offer Freijsen’s clients deeper insights into her masterpieces, elevating her tapestries from merely designed commodities to unique art pieces with rich personal histories. The book underscores her works as outcomes of meticulous labor, skill, and passion, reinforcing the critical role of slow, natural processes in contemporary art and design. This strategic approach guided the structure and design of the book.

The book begins with a minimalist white cover adorned with blind-embossed organic shapes, inviting readers to touch and feel the patterns that represent the core of Freijsen’s work. The inner pages are thoughtfully organized into four main sections: photographic research on the spots, form and color studies, a behind-the-scenes look at the labor-intensive hand-tufting technique, and the final masterpieces displayed in installation settings. This well-conceived structure provides a detailed and cohesive visual story of Freijsen’s creative journey. Studio Renate Boere further enhanced Lizan’s form and color studies by adding extracted color palettes, offering inspirational and practical applications of the studies. Between the third and fourth sections is an intermediate part with delicate papers allowing silhouettes and colors from subsequent pages to subtly merge with the outlines and shapes on preceding pages. These artistic interludes abstractly mimic the slow-growing processes of fungus and decay spots that inspire Freijsen’s artworks.

‘The Living Surface’ not only documents the aesthetic evolution of Freijsen’s creations but also underscores the intersection of art and design, particularly through the use of typography. The book, a multilingual publication in English, Dutch, and French, presented a challenge for designers to ensure readability while showcasing texts in various languages. The creative solution was to display the text blocks in different languages at three fixed angles, creating a unique visual effect resembling woven textiles.

The dust jacket serves as a visual summary of Freijsen’s research and aesthetics. When unfolded, it reveals different histories, layers, and perspectives of the decay shapes, providing an overview of Freijsen’s methodology and emphasizing the beauty of slow-growing processes and the connection between urban nature and a sense of home.