CultMustArt isn’t just a body of work — it’s a fully formed world.
Built one fragment at a time by Paulette in ’t Veld, these hand-cut analog collages reimagine history and push past conventional perspectives.
Paulette is an autonomous artist from the Netherlands, a graduate of the Academy for Fine Arts Maastricht. Her collages have been and are exhibited both nationally and internationally. She was also awarded the Collage Prize in Brussels in 2019.
Using a scalpel, glue, and her artistic instinct, Paulette constructs immersive visual spaces where past and present clash and harmonize.
Each piece is a portal into a different reality — carefully layered, authentically original, and fiercely analog.
CultMustArt exists for those who seek analog truth in a digital world.
In my imagination I'm building decors, while making the analogue collage. I imagine myself moving forward in the world I am creating. Everything has to be right. The perspective is very important here. This gives me the opportunity to create paths that challenge the viewer to be inquisitive. As if you see this world for the first time and want to explore it.
The characters visible in my worlds are of great importance, as they not only indicate the size of the world, but also stimulate the imagination of the viewer, with each character having its own little scene, its own role in the larger whole. Among these "characters" are also the so-called "fellow spectators", those who observe the world together with the viewer.
The process :
During my searches through old photo books for interesting images I became aware that the first thing the brain does is searching for meaning and context in the image.
As a result, one actually misses a lot of beautiful parts in the image. By letting go of the meaning and context, you discover that the world only consists out of forms.
These "forms" are the "building blocks" for my worlds.
I work without a Plan or example. The work manifests itself, by itself.
The process of creation is a journey with an unknown destination.
In my work I investigate the relationship between fiction and reality. I merge reality in a different way, creating a kind of mutation of time, form and meaning. I "extract" scalp particles from old photo books and magazines. The photographic particles I use differ from a few centimeters to minuscule particles.
My preference is for old books with black and white pictures. These have a certain neutrality. I use magazines mainly for color accents in my work.
Rhythm / Shape / Perspective / Distortion are key words for creating my work. I try with extreme precision to merge the cut parts together as it were to "mutate".
At its core, Paulette creates unique and strange surrealistic worlds, often with a futuristic flavor. The atmosphere in her works is often characterized by the dark, mysterious ambience of old film noir, with its dystopian setting and intriguing contrasts. While one work invites contemplation, another invites discovery—hidden stories waiting to be unraveled by the viewer.
Every collage from CultMustArt is one-of-a-kind.
Originals are rarely sold; they are safely kept or exhibited.
For collectors and art lovers, there are exclusive limited edition prints, posters, and merchandise that offer a way to bring a piece of this world into your own.
Whether you’re a serious collector, a gallerist, or simply someone who refuses the ordinary, CultMustArt offers more than art:
It offers a new reality — layered, tactile, and is defiantly unique.
