How Ruth van Beek uses her archive to make beautiful photobooks.

In Ruth van Beek's new book The Oldest Thing she uses pictures from old manuals and household books. Some of them tracing back to the recipe folders she got from her mother. The book features numerous collages, archival images, and paintings in a dazzling show of 500 pages. The abundance of images creates visual saturation. The depicted objects become meaningless. They become equal to each other, scale fades, shapes converge and all that remains is form and colour. After a while a visual rhyme of ovals emerges. A strange rhythm emerges from the book. A rhythm like that of recurring daily tasks.