From Hiba is a 120-page visual essay showing my observations, discoveries, experiments, results, and processes of my residency at the Aomori Contemporary Art Centre, Japan. During my residency, I researched the lifecycle of the Hiba tree, a cypress endemic to the four main islands of Japan. It was the start of StagingWood, a long-term project questioning our relationship with the forest and its lifecycle.

In Japan, I dived into the history and management of Hiba forests and the linear production of lumber in relation to local spiritual practice. The research resulted in two works; Residual landscape and Compost the linear.
Back in the Netherlands, I started translating this research and its results into a book. Over the last six months a completely new world -the one of bookmaking- unfolded itself. For the first time, I worked on an old inherited Grafix Press of my grandfather creating the cover and binding with Hiba oil, wood, and paper. By the end of October 2020, after an intensive production process, the first hundred copies were sent out.

From Hiba is a story that starts, ends, and questions us in relation to the lifecycle of the Hiba tree and its forests.