“It is [a] cliché, [the] artificial depiction of landscapes – without people, automobiles, factories and housing developments – that Wertman plays with and that she carries to an extreme. In her collages she combines, for example, depictions of landscapes, cityscapes and famous monuments within one composition. … The way Wertman weaves visuals clichés together from various cultures is reminiscent of the biblical story of the tower of Babel. … From this point of view, the collages should be regarded as a metaphor for incomprehension, a Babel-like confusion that exists between people of different cultures and that drives them apart. … It is noteworthy that a number of themes recur with an unequivocal iconographic meaning. Sheep, animals that are referred to in a wide range of metaphors, enter her work long before the foot-and-mouth disease. The airplane, as much associated with the Bijlmer catastrophe as with her position of ‘relative’ outsider, and the romantic landscape, as ultimate expression of a deeply rooted longing for beauty and harmony, in a world that is torn apart by war and violence, are other recurring themes.”
Published on the occasion of an exhibition, a catalogue featuring pictures of natural and urban landscapes, cut into pieces and combined into surreal layered landscapes, airplanes and sheep play a prominent role in the resulting collages, also included are reproduced collage puzzles and sculptures, with an introduction (in Dutch and English) by Riet van der Linden; soft cover, 30 x 24 cm, 30 not numbered pages, ed/750, Breda 2002
ISBN: 90-72339-03-7
