‘The Living Surface’ designed by research-driven design agency Studio Renate Boere is a beautiful example of a book design that reveals the artist’s working method. A selection of spots from Lizan Freijsen’s project ‘Research on the Spot’ have been carefully archived in 90 categories. followed by shape, color studies and the tufting process. The result, Lizan Freijsen’s work, is located at the back of the book. A logical consequence of Lizan Freijsen’s years of research.

The result is an alternative biology book on ‘Urban Nature’: a study of traces of decay in public space in large cities in the Netherlands, Paris, Nantes and the salt marshes in Brittany (period 2006 – 2016). The design by Studio Renate Boere inventively links Lizan Freijsen’s extensive stain archive to her installations.

Leafing through the book reveals her process. The zoomed-in colour studies inspire Lizan to colour choices for her carpets. The transparent pages and the American dust jacket, with its complex folding method, show a true masterpiece of the endless possibilities of Lizan Freijsen’s form study.

The design of the text pages is inspired by the tufting process, a technique that Lizan Freijsen uses in the development of her rugs. Different languages ​​(English, Dutch and French) are interwoven, like a tufting machine shooting thread through a cloth.