Monika Beisner, born in Hamburg in 1942, studied painting in Braunschweig and Berlin before studying at the Slade School of Art in London and the New School for Social Research in New York on scholarships. She established an international reputation as a book illustrator, publishing 16 books in multiple languages between 1971 and 1994. Her later illustrated works include Dante’s Comedy (2007) and Ovid’s Metamorphoses (2010). She has also created 29 paintings for Gilgamesh, the world’s oldest surviving poem, and is currently working on Daphne Variations, a cycle of paintings inspired by another tale from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Forest of Things: Monika Beisner – Conversations with Robert Bush, exploring her life and work, was published in 2021.

Exhibition: Carnavale - Friendly Little Monsters