Sampler invites visitors to encounter student publications produced between 2000–2024, as both material objects and fragments of language, showing the intersections between fine art, graphic design, literature, and spatial installation.

Conceived as an exhibition at the Kunstenbibliotheek in Ghent, the project will be on view over the course of a year within the library’s spaces. Across walls, floors, and shelves, the titles of twenty-six works are set down as textual interventions, transforming the interior into a landscape of poetic fragments. This constellation is complemented by a broader selection of publications – a recent donation to the library which is presented in vitrines on the second floor.

To activate the archive of the publications, a magazine is published as a copy- style facsimile, designed in collaboration with Aagje Vandriessche. The project’s execution is based on a concept and a curation by Kasper Andreasen, who also donated the books to the library. The publication Sampler is available at the reception of the Kunstenbibliotheek.

With exhibited titles by Janek Bersz, Kato Bouckaert, Tim Bruggeman, Floor Crick, Lucie De Almeinda Cachinho, Bart De Baets, Joris De Rycke, Martijn den Ouden, Ankje Frouws, Julia Grame, Louis Hilson, Leon Jespers, Mara Joustra, Louise Moana Kolff, Lewie Landuyt, Steve Michiels, Willem Roose, Anne-Sofie Thomsen, Aagje Vandriessche, Jelena Vanoverbeek, Matthieu Vrijman, Bart Walraeve, Floor Wesseling, Felix Ysenbaert, as well as some anonymous authors and other student publications from the Kunstenbibliotheek.

Is script meant to be read, or meant to be seen? At what point does handwriting become a gesture, a trace on a surface rather than a vehicle of meaning?

Scriptural Abstraction explores the use of script as a visual language that moves beyond legibility. From sacred calligraphic traditions to modern and contemporary experiments, artists have long examined the tension between writing and drawing. The exhibition turns toward what might be called the shadow side of writing: the visual dimension of script that remains hidden behind its role as language, where writing abandons its communicative function and moves toward texture, movement and the abstract visual form.

This exploration takes place at a moment when writing itself is undergoing a transformation. Writing today is almost invariably produced through keyboards and digital interfaces, while the practice of handwriting continues to decline across much of the Western world. What was once a material, gestural act performed by the hand is increasingly replaced by standardized typographic forms.

Against this background, the works brought together in this selection return to writing as a physical and visual practice. The selected books present words, letters, and calligraphic signs as visual material, loosening the bond between reading and understanding. Writing shifts between script and image as letters dissolve, repeat, or distort. Script turns into pattern and language becomes image. Meaning may disappear, but significance remains.

Houda Ben Azzouz

Houda Ben Azzouz is a Brussels-based visual artist and researcher working across writing, curating, printmaking, photography, and calligraphy. Her practice explores how visual forms shape cultural narratives and how visual languages influence one another across cultures and histories. She is currently following the postgraduate Curatorial Studies at KASK & Conservatorium (2025–2026).