The artist José Vermeersch (1922–1997) is known for his ceramic sculptures of heterogeneous figures. Yet he was a painter, weaver and designer too, who created a rich oeuvre imbued with his passion for people, animals and life.
 
This book pays tribute to the genesis of Vermeersch’ figurative work and uses around a hundred sculptures and paintings to show the exceptional way in which his pictorial and his ceramic work are interwoven. The indeterminate and non-binary character of Vermeersch’ oeuvre – from gender to species (human/animal) – is explored in depth along with ideas such as sustainability and fragility.
 
Presences unveils a series of unpublished pictures from the artist’s archive, in which we see him at work in his studio or at the two wood-fired kilns he built for himself. Unique photographs that testify to the patience and care with which Vermeersch created his sculptures. He had his clay figures stand, lie or sit, waiting quietly for the alchemy of the natural elements to take effect. Vermeersch’ work displays a certain slowness and a powerful affinity with a specific place and with nature. Precisely because of this, his work seems to connect more than ever with the current focus on sustainable and autonomous processes of production.
 
Lilou Vidal compiled this book, which includes two new essays by the writer-curators Laura McLean-Ferris and Dieter Roelstraete, as well as a text by the artist and author Rik Vermeersch, José’s son, who is intimately acquainted with his father’s work.