A Search for the Universal is a comprehensive book that features about 150 key artworks from the Axel & May Vervoordt Foundation and includes essays by art historian and museum director Jacqueline Grandjean, journalist Emma Crichton-Miller, as well as Axel and May Vervoordt in their own words. The book explores the groundbreaking series of Vervoordt-curated exhibitons at Venice’s Palazzo Fortunty from 2007-2017 with retrospective visual highlights by photographer Jean-Pierre Gabriel, combining all exhibitions together for the first time in a single volume.

Axel and May Vervoordt believe in art’s intrinsic power to change lives and add perspectives ot the past, present, and future. This approach is embodied through A Search for the Universal, a 356-page volume conceived by the Foundation and driven by the family’s belief in the transformational capacities of sharing art with as many people as possible.

The book’s 167-page plate section highlights the artworks with photography by Laziz Hamani and Jan Liegeois. A complete list with an in-depth art historical entry of each work is included. A Search for the Universal is above all a story about the qualities the Vervoordts seek in art and how living with art has enriched their lives.

Published by MER, B&L

EU/North America: May 2023 | China: June 2023

Hardback | 356 pages | 290 mm x 290 mm

NUR 646 | ISBN 978 946 475 9600 | D/2023/11.089/91

English and Chinese available

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