Sophie Nys
Sophie Nys
Sophie Nys
Sophie Nys

To O.

Sophie Nys

2026

Leather, book 

49 x 10 x 5 cm

Edition of 12 copies numbered and signed by the artist, plus 3 artist's proofs

Price
€375.00
Tax included・Free shipping in Japan
The edition

With To O., Nys offers a new take on the knot and the suspended form. While looking at medieval paintings, the artist noticed strange little pouches held in the hands of various figures: girdle books. In use between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries, these small portable books were particularly common among monks, members of the clergy and the aristocracy, especially women. The binding extended into a long strip of fabric or leather, knotted at the end, which allowed the book to be attached to a belt and left to hang down—part cultural device, part fashion accessory. This newly updated version contains a condensed edition of The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne. By choosing this burlesque novel, replete with stylistic, conceptual and graphic inventions, Nys seems to invite us to trade in our omnipresent smartphones for this irreverent and experimental vade mecum.

The artist
Sophie Nys ソフィー・ニス

Courtesy of M.F.

Sophie Nys was born in 1974 in Antwerp (Belgium). She is currently living in Brussels. 

Sophie Nys’s works could be compared to haikus: they are at once complete and laconic, evident and enigmatic. Whether it is a sculpture, a video or a book, her work is characterized by a formal conciseness which paradoxically multiplies and amplifies its resonances. Such a process of condensation is achieved through the artist’s sense of humor as well as her use—both appreciative and irreverent—of the vocabulary and strategies of Minimal and Conceptual art. Sophie Nys can thus approach subjects as diverse as Lenin, Mount Fuji, the fourteenth century plague, or the fountains of Zurich, and distill them into distinctive images and objects, filled with wit and poetic relevance.

She has exhibited in numerous international venues, such as Wiels, Brussels (2020); Kunsthal Extra City, Antwerp (2019); KIOSK, Ghent (2019); Guimarães, Vienna (2018); Fondazione Prada, Venice (2018); Galeria Quadrado Azul, Lisbon (2019); Archiv, Zurich (2015); CRAC Alsace, Altkirch (2015); and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (2013). Her films have been shown at FIDMarseille, BOZAR, e-flux, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Argos, and Courtisane festival, among others.

Her work is represented by Galerie Greta Meert (Brussels) and Maniera Galerie (Brussels).