English translation "Monica van Rijn puts her soul in everything she creates. Once you have seen various of her paintings, you will slowly learn to distinguish a number of main themes: departure, homecoming, doubt, uncertainty, infinity, hope and despair, saying hello and saying farewell, heavy themes, to be sure. And there is nothing lightweight about her paintings either, on the contrary, many of them have such dramatic elements it is wise to exhibit each one separately, that does them more justice. But behind the dramatic, non-figurative main themes, you suddenly detect a lovely landscape, reasonably painted, a river delta or ocean bed, the view of a harbor, the contours of a cityscape. Is that the female element Monica adds to take the viewer by the hand and whisper maternally that there is also light and airiness and recognizability in this world of ours? That not everything just comes down to the serious problems of the world?" - Bert Gort, co-author "LAYERS Monica van Rijn"