research & publishing
hidden histories
Black morning glory: A time for decolonial listening investigates the herbarius as both a lens through which we can analyse colonial representations of nature, and as a decolonial tool to explore new relationships with plant life. Considering the artistic research around some of the oldest kruidboeken in the Netherlands by artist M.A. van Tulder during her research residency at Huis van het boek, researcher E.A.E. Evans works through the history of science and botany, defined by patriarchal capitalism, to offer a contemporary way forward. The richly illustrated volume featuring plants, herbs, and their medicinal properties is a unique epistemological construction that has contributed to the exploitation of nature. Through Rolando Vázquez’s notion of decolonial listening, this publication asks readers: what could a decolonial herbarius, visually and discursively, be like today?
Research, editing, design and riso-printing
M.A. van Tulder
Writing, research
E.A.E. Evans
Editorial Advisor
Ebissé Wakjira
Supported by
Stroom Den Haag
Huis van het boek
Published by Roots to Fruits
20,8 x 29,7 cm, 60 p.
Research, editing, design and riso-printing
M.A. van Tulder
Writing, research
E.A.E. Evans
Editorial Advisor
Ebissé Wakjira
Supported by
Stroom Den Haag
Huis van het boek
Published by Roots to Fruits
20,8 x 29,7 cm, 60 p.
Emptying the Shelves traces how Dutch ethnographic museums – among them the Dutch National Museum of World Cultures and its predecessors – have shaped and reshaped their displays over the past century. Drawing on a trove of archival exhibition photographs and contemporary essays, it charts the transition from crowded cabinets to austere white cube displays, with most objects now in storage facilities. With texts by Tamarah Kerr de Haan, Clémentine Deliss and Mirjam Shatanawi, this publication examines what it means to engage with these objects today and how their silence is intimately connected to colonial legacies, restitution and repair.
Edited by Mirelle van Tulder
Design by Victoria Lum
Published by Roots to Fruits, co-published by Framer Framed 2025. 13,5 x 19 cm, 528 p.; 240 b/w illustrations, text: English.
Distribution
Worldwide: Idea Books
UK: Public Knowledge Books
Edited by Mirelle van Tulder
Design by Victoria Lum
Published by Roots to Fruits, co-published by Framer Framed 2025. 13,5 x 19 cm, 528 p.; 240 b/w illustrations, text: English.
Distribution
Worldwide: Idea Books
UK: Public Knowledge Books
“In van Tulder’s work, by refusing the object, she objects to the gaze, and the categorisation and reductionism practices implied in its cataloguing. The empty spaces hint at a possible alternative, a negation of colonial attitudes of epistemological, institutionalised authority. Presenting the non-material instead, the artist both refuses and highlights the fetishistic container in which these images came into being. This gesture forces the viewer to confront their position—do we search for the missing object, or recognise the violence depicted in its absence? The work thus unfolds as an investigation into the act of looking at these photographed artefacts, in their found condition, dissected as they are from any context. The act of removal highlights the missing condition of these artefacts, and reminds us how this legacy is constructed from exclusion. The final work, an empty catalogue, calls for a dismantling of systems of representation that are aligned with colonial attitudes. 'Catalogue of Stolen Objects, Courtesy of’' makes visible the invisible (and buried) practices of erasure, displacement and subjugation that inform our worldview.”
Excerpt from “Excizing the Gaze, Reframing Absence”, by Mariana Lobão
21 x 28 cm, 64 p.; 129 b/w illustrations, text: English. Amsterdam, 2025.
Best Dutch Book Design 2025
Excerpt from “Excizing the Gaze, Reframing Absence”, by Mariana Lobão
21 x 28 cm, 64 p.; 129 b/w illustrations, text: English. Amsterdam, 2025.
Best Dutch Book Design 2025
Roots to Fruits is a magazine about music; its migration and origins, and its role against oppression. The first issue is dedicated to Highlife and its vital role in the struggle for independence and the creation of an African identity during the time of Kwame Nkrumah. It features an article by Dele Adeyemo, and a visual essay by Mirelle with images from the archive of the Wereldmuseum (NL) and the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT).
Dele Adeyemo’s ‘The Modernizing Beat’ rereads the production of space in a modernizing Ghana through highlife, taking the modernist New Town and Tema Harbour as a case study about how the emergence of the ‘worksong’ has governed urbanization in Ghana.
The beat of highlife’s precursor, the worksong, bound the community together in collective life that was attuned to the rhythm of the tides and cycles of the seasons; the evolution of the highlife sound can tell a story of the circulation of cultures, commodities, and political-economic structures condensed into the spatial forms of a modernizing Ghana.
Contributor: Dele Adeyemo
Editing, Design and Riso printing: Mirelle van Tulder
Dele Adeyemo’s ‘The Modernizing Beat’ rereads the production of space in a modernizing Ghana through highlife, taking the modernist New Town and Tema Harbour as a case study about how the emergence of the ‘worksong’ has governed urbanization in Ghana.
The beat of highlife’s precursor, the worksong, bound the community together in collective life that was attuned to the rhythm of the tides and cycles of the seasons; the evolution of the highlife sound can tell a story of the circulation of cultures, commodities, and political-economic structures condensed into the spatial forms of a modernizing Ghana.
Contributor: Dele Adeyemo
Editing, Design and Riso printing: Mirelle van Tulder
Nº2 Champeta, 2023
Launch: 22–24 September 2023, Miss Read Berlin,
Haus der Kulturen der Welt
Roots to Fruits Nº2 Champeta: A Colombian Caribbean Cultural Resistance
In Roots to Fruits Nº2 Champeta, Edna Martinez tells the story of Champeta, an Afro-Colombian music genre based on African rhythms, from which local producers create new sonic, visual and spatial practices, as both an outcome and facilitator of cultures of resistance.
The Picó Sound System of the Colombian Caribbean cities of Cartagena, Barranquilla and Santa Marta have created parties for people of their working-class neighborhoods, in particular for the Afro-Colombian diaspora. The issue explores the musical migration from Africa to Colombia; how it made the Afro-Colombian’s diaspora aware of its origins and colonial past; and how champeta has resisted marginalisation and continuous to break with hegemonic powers.
We’re thrilled to be able to share an essay by Edna Martinez in this issue. Edna is an artist, DJ, and Curator of Music and Sonic Practices at Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW), Berlin.
Contributor: Edna Martinez
Editors: Daniel Senior Durán & Mirelle van Tulder
Design and Riso printing: Mirelle van Tulder
In Roots to Fruits Nº2 Champeta, Edna Martinez tells the story of Champeta, an Afro-Colombian music genre based on African rhythms, from which local producers create new sonic, visual and spatial practices, as both an outcome and facilitator of cultures of resistance.
The Picó Sound System of the Colombian Caribbean cities of Cartagena, Barranquilla and Santa Marta have created parties for people of their working-class neighborhoods, in particular for the Afro-Colombian diaspora. The issue explores the musical migration from Africa to Colombia; how it made the Afro-Colombian’s diaspora aware of its origins and colonial past; and how champeta has resisted marginalisation and continuous to break with hegemonic powers.
We’re thrilled to be able to share an essay by Edna Martinez in this issue. Edna is an artist, DJ, and Curator of Music and Sonic Practices at Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW), Berlin.
Contributor: Edna Martinez
Editors: Daniel Senior Durán & Mirelle van Tulder
Design and Riso printing: Mirelle van Tulder