Secret Outlines

© Jacqueline Mesmaeker and Nadja Vilenne

Secret Outlines (1996) consists of a showcase of 8 books, namely Doctor Johnson – Essai sur la fatigue – Childhood – Lenin – Versailles – Fontainebleau – Une chambre à soi – Théorie de la culture. These books contain drawings by the artist in or on the text, between the lines and in the margins. Her interventions are both pictorial and graphic.

Secret Outlines is a series of discrete micro-interventions. They are like "Easter eggs" hidden throughout the books, which are to be considered as the space where the artist's work is on display.

Literature has always played a prominent role in her work which we can qualify as that of a bibliophile. Books are omnipresent in her work, serving as both a resource and a medium for the artist.