The paradise of Isola, near Nice, is the French base and great source of inspiration for visual artist Jackie Sleper. Flora and fauna in all their varieties and the enchanting ambience around Isola feed her imagination, which has been put to use here for a series of collages that are rooted in surrealism. The collages, a harvest of twenty years’ work, at first seem innocent due to their humour, bright colours, beautiful flowers and adorable animals. But look more closely and you will see that they go deeper, sometimes on the surface, sometimes hidden within the scene and only revealed as a sum of all the separate elements. The seeming optimism can then change into abrasive discomfort.
Designer Roderick Vos found in Isola his inspiration for the organic Isola scene. This also means that he has a share in the book, just like the poet Ingmar Heytze, who chose a collage to express this is his very own words.
