Employed as an office manager in the former GDR, and working as a self-taught artist, Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt used her typewriter to create patterns and abstract compositions with characters and letters at the junction of Concrete Poetry, Dada, and Minimal Art. Her linguistic explorations that she developed further into collages later on, are often based on ambiguity.

Published on the occasion of the large retrospective at MINSK Kunsthaus in Potsdam, NICHTS NEUES explores her typewritings, prints, collages, and paintings in thematic episodes. Although Wolf-Rehfeldt discontinued her artistic practice after the fall of the Berlin Wall, her art has lost none of its relevance. In a poetic, idiosyncratic, and often humorous way, the nonconformist artist explored themes such as environmental issues, intellectual freedom, community, and communication. Her sometimes subtle, sometimes more literal play with words, meanings, and forms continue to reveal the unexpected.

Text by: Marie Gerbaulet, Kornelia Röder
Designed by: Fasson Freddy Fuss