Marie Louise Steuch: The quiet language of paper

By Signe Hansen | Photos: Camilla Hey

Some art excites the senses and sets the mind spinning, but Marie Louise Steuch’s work does something quite different. Comprising hundreds of subtle nuances, details and hidden stories, her collages quietly draw the viewer closer, into a world so calm that when you step into her studio you can almost hear the soft rip of the paper with which her work is created.

For many artists, the paper is a blank surface onto which they can project their vision, but Marie Louise Steuch sees things differently. She sees, finds and subtly exposes the beauty in paper and its patina. In her meticulously composed collages, the viewer discovers layer after layer of small pieces of torn paper, old letters, wallpaper and, perhaps, an old stamp. “Old handwritten letters are already a part of the past; they have their own story, but what I love is when I can give a letter, or book cover, a new story,” the artist explains. “And I love patina, when something shows the natural signs of ageing, like a navy blue colour – it might be beautiful from the outset, but it just gains more character when it ages.”

Framed in antireflective museum glass to expose its depth and tactility, the work is an almost meditative art form, muted in its expression yet intriguing and full of hidden stories.

Marie Louise Steuch: The quiet language of paper

One layer at a time

Inspired by an old moving box full of letters and documents, Steuch began exploring collage almost two decades ago. She later attended Spektrum art school in Copenhagen and, in recent years, has exhibited her work at several juried exhibitions.

Today she works at her atelier and gallery, Studio M, in Charlottenlund, north of Copenhagen, where she quietly leafs through stacks of paper collected in second-hand stores, forgotten boxes and everyday life. As small details catch her eye, she rips and layers the paper to gradually draw in the viewer. “It might be a crease left in the paper, a mark, a spot or a drop that suddenly catches my eye and makes me curious. Working with layer upon layer I strive to recreate that curiosity; there’s always something that’s hidden. You might see some words from a letter peeking out or the image of a girl looking through a hole, and you can see the layers; it’s almost three-dimensional,” she explains.

In this way, the finished composition emerges almost on its own, through the delicate nuances of the materials and a few simple additional elements, such as an old ink stamp or a straight red line.

Marie Louise Steuch: The quiet language of paper

A piece of calm

The sense of calm that viewers encounter in Steuch’s work is no coincidence. She describes how a feeling of inner quiet often follows her into the studio and shapes the way she works. “A lot of it comes naturally. I wake up in the morning with this sense of inner peace, then I go to the studio and work quietly with my stacks of paper,” she says. “Sometimes a piece comes together in half an hour because I just know how it should be. Other times it takes days, weeks or even years.”

The finished works offer a quiet contrast to the constant stream of stimuli in everyday life. Filled with small details, they draw the eye gently rather than demanding attention, allowing each element to retain its own presence.

“We live in an incredibly busy world, with impressions coming at us all the time,” says Steuch. “I like the idea of creating something you can have on your wall that feels very calm, but still has presence and beauty. Something that makes your home feel like a safe space, where you do not have to process anything, but can simply be.”

Studio M is open by appointment.
Phone: +45 24822242