Claudette Schreuders, who lives and works in South Africa, is known for her distinctive carved and painted wooden sculptures which, as Okwui Enwezor has observed, 'propose a new language resulting from a synthesis of African and European figural forms'. This major monograph brings together Schreuders' works of the last 17 years, tracing her investigations into self-identity, isolation and belonging through the rich narratives of her various figurative groups. The book includes beautiful reproductions of more than 70 sculptures alongside prints, drawings and pages from the artist's sketchbooks that provide insight into her references and working process. In accompanying essays, Rory Bester examines the interplay of autobiography and fiction in Schreuders' oeuvre, Faye Hirsch finds the presence of the sacred amidst the apparent domesticity of her sculptures and prints, and Antjie Krog addresses the powerful emotions that resonate beneath the still surface of Schreuders' most recent series, Close, Close.
