Proefdruk voor pagina uit Reinaert de Vos c. 1910

This is a page proof by Bernard Willem Wierink, who made it for an illustrated version of the medieval story, *Reinaert de Vos.* I love this! It’s all in shades of terracotta, like a super-refined coloring book page, or a tile pattern you’d find in a fancy old building. I imagine Wierink hunched over his worktable, carefully inking in those tiny squares and the stylized animals and birds. You can almost see the concentration on his face as he repeats those little motifs, like a meditative exercise. He's probably thinking about the conversations between animals in the Reinaert story and how these animal shapes can come to life on the page, and how we, the viewers, can also bring them to life. It reminds me that even the simplest marks, when repeated and arranged with intention, can create a whole world. You might look at it and wonder if the design process itself was part of the story for Wierink.