Isabelle de Borchgrave: A Life in Paper and Colour

A richly illustrated new monograph traces the Belgian artist’s extraordinary creative journey, from intimate sketchbooks to monumental paper installations shown around the world.

“I have a passion for paper.”

Few sentences could capture Isabelle de Borchgrave’s artistic world more precisely. For the Belgian artist, paper was never simply a support. It could become fabric, sculpture, architecture or historical illusion, transformed by paint, folding and an exceptional understanding of colour.

Her connection to the material began early. “Paper was my first toy,” she once explained, recalling how she painted, cut and constructed objects from it as a child.

A new monograph dedicated to her work offers an immersive journey through this singular universe. Across 444 pages and approximately 950 illustrations, the book follows a life defined by movement, curiosity and the constant reinvention of a material often considered fragile.

Compiled under the direction of photographer and author Jean Pierre Gabriel following two years of research, the publication reveals both the celebrated scale of de Borchgrave’s work and the detailed process behind it.

From sketchbook to full scale creation

The book revisits the major exhibitions that established Isabelle de Borchgrave’s international reputation, including Papiers à la Mode, Frida Kahlo, Mariano Fortuny, The Medici and The Ballets Russes.

These projects took her around the world, from Mulhouse, Potsdam and Istanbul to San Francisco, Memphis and New York, as well as Venice, Turin, Osaka, São Paulo, Paris, Versailles and Tsarskoye Selo.

Her paper creations often reproduced the complexity of historic garments, textiles and decorative surfaces with remarkable precision. Through hand painted patterns, pleats, folds and carefully constructed volumes, ordinary sheets of paper acquired the appearance of silk, velvet, embroidery and lace.

“I was, and still am, surprised every day by what paper can give you,” she told Vogue. For de Borchgrave, its freedom came from the possibility of painting, shrinking, ironing and manipulating it until it could imitate almost any fabric.

The monograph goes beyond the finished installations to examine how these projects developed. Sketchbooks, preparatory drawings, models and workshop images reveal the stages through which an initial idea became one of the hundreds of full scale creations produced during her career.

Colour as a language

Colour was as essential to de Borchgrave as paper itself. She described her creative process as “a kind of hunt for colours,” beginning with a single shade before exploring its variations in response to light, scale and subject.

Her palette was shaped by travel, memory and observation. The changing seasons, the atmosphere of a city and the colours of a landscape could all find their way into her work. Each project became a personal world in which historical references were filtered through her own exuberant visual language.

Although de Borchgrave became internationally known for her paper costumes, her practice extended much further. The book also explores her paintings, including pleated canvases inspired by her profound encounter with the work of Venetian designer Mariano Fortuny.

Textiles remained another constant source of inspiration. “Every piece of fabric tells a story, and it has a soul, too,” she said, reflecting on her lifelong fascination with weaving, printing and embroidery.

Transforming fragility into eternity

A foreword by Axel Vervoordt introduces the publication, while essays by Rita Brown, Jill d’Alessandro, Laetitia d’Ursel, Daniela Ferretti, Erik Orsenna, Alberto Ruy Sánchez and Samuel Wittwer offer different perspectives on her life and artistic legacy.

“Bebelle had that rare gift of transforming fragility into eternity,” Vervoordt writes.

Published two years after the Brussels artist’s death, the monograph brings together an oeuvre that has often been dispersed across international museums, exhibitions and private collections. It provides a lasting record of works that were sometimes dismantled once an exhibition ended, while offering access to more intimate parts of her creative process.

More than a retrospective volume, Isabelle de Borchgrave celebrates an artist who saw unlimited possibilities in the simplest of materials. In her hands, paper became a world of fashion, history, theatre and colour, fragile in appearance yet remarkably enduring.

Book: Isabelle de Borchgrave
Format: Hardcover, English edition
Pages: 444
Illustrations: Approximately 950
ISBN: 978-2-9602927-6-3
isabelledeborchgrave.com