Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt

Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt (1932–2024) was a German artist known for her visual poetry and mail art. She married artist Robert Rehfeldt in 1955 and lived in East Berlin, where she developed her core practice. Her work was featured in documenta 14 in 2017.

She is especially recognized for her “typewritings”—graphic and poetic compositions created on a typewriter between the 1970s and 1990s, often shared via mail art collaborations. This network enabled communication among artists under authoritarian regimes during deep international isolation. Her mail art traveled globally, reaching Western and Eastern Europe, the Americas, Asia, and New Caledonia.

Mail art bypassed censorship and market control, offering a free, quiet resistance through artistic exchange. Her Kunstpostbriefe (“art letters”) acted as nomadic exhibitions, creative exchanges, and personal correspondence.