Dutch artist Marcel van Eeden has completed a drawing a day since 1993. He interprets photographs and texts, produced before 1965, which happen to catch his eye during his visits to antiquarian bookshops, archives, and libraries. With fascinating vividness, his works show people and places that seem to be oddly still and yet could spring to life at any moment. One of the strongest effects of van Eeden's drawings is that they give viewers the feeling of being part of an old black-and-white film. The artist calls his life's work the "encyclopedia of my death." He creates an archive of images of lost time that has been regained through his works.
In duotone quality, this book features a collection of approximately 140 drawings by van Eeden, in which he provides a fictitious biography for K. M. Wiegand, who, history verifies, was actually a botanist. Marcel van Eeden fits together the spectrum of the hybrid personality of K. M. Wiegand - ranging from bodyguard and dandy to scientist and artist - using historical images and fragments of text, thus creating a new reality.