Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt German, b. 1932

Ruth WOLF-REHFELDT was a key figure in the Mail Art movement, in which women were rather rare. She would send her creations to her international contacts in the Mail Art networks and invited them to intervene with the works and return them: "Mail Art was a kind of safety valve, and, too, a certain satisfaction." she has stated. "I was never able to travel, but I was glad that I had contact throughout the world that all the others who were allowed to travel sometimes didn't have."

Born in Wurzen (East Germany) in 1932, Ruth trained as a typist, a stereotypically female role, which lead to her creation of 'typewritings.' She moved to Berlin in 1950 where she met her husband, the experimental artist Robert Rehfeldt, one of the most important postal artists in the German Democratic Republic, who would include Ruth's works in his correspondance to his fellow male artists.

Formed of singular letters and punctuation marks, these abstract compositions innovatively combined language and symbols to create recognisable patterns, geometric shapes and architectural forms, of striking beauty and complexity. Above all, the works offered a sharp critique of the GDR, whose borders she was allowed to cross, at least in intellectual exchange, only thanks to her art.