Book cover 'Academic Conviviality'
Academische gezelligheid
A novel about transgressive behavior at university. About loyalty and trust, power and secrecy, guilt and shame, but also about trauma processing and recovery.
Lot Vandekeybus designed the cover for this captivating novel. She based her work on a description that Van Liefferinge places at a crucial moment in her book. Growing up on a farm, Van Liefferinge vividly remembers the slaughter of the pigs. Her father's hands also remind her of the farmers in Permeke's paintings.
"Academische Gezelligheid" ('Academic Conviviality') by Hilde Van Liefferinge was published in the spring of 2025 by EPO . The book caused quite a stir in the press and on social media.
Hilde Van Liefferinge on the cover of 'Academische Gezelligheid':
And how I feel it! It depicts a crucial scene and metaphor from the book, which she has managed to translate into a work of art in a uniquely Permekian way. The contrast between the 'academic' letters and the 'unpleasant,' suffocating peasant gesture sharpens the confrontation and parallel between these two worlds, exactly as I intended. And while the pig may be choked, the free swallows still fly in the air...
“For me, this cover not only covers my book, but also the soul of my story .”
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