Gerda Dendooven was born in Kortrijk, Belgium. She studied Free Graphics at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent. At the beginning of her career, she supervised children’s art studios in museums for several years. She currently also teaches Illustration at Luca School of Arts in Ghent.

She makes drawings for stories by other writers as well as her own stories. Many of her stories have become theatre plays, and she is sometimes on stage herself. For several years now, she has regularly made live appearances at concerts or literary performances.

In 2020, she made live appearances for the Brussels Philharmonic during the full performance of Peer Gynt, and together with Mauro Pawlovski and Fikry El Azzouzi, she forms Trio El Azzouzi. With Elvis Peeters, she came up with Mister Paper, which will be shown as an animation series on Ketnet in 2021.

Dendooven has a style that is immediately recognisable through atmosphere and composition, colour harmony and colour alienation – often inspired by the Flemish expressionists. Proportions and perspective are not taken into account. People are central in her drawings, and interiors are suggested only by attributes. She uses archetypes (The Mother, The Doctor) and humour. She searches for the most appropriate techniques and lines for each book. She works mostly with pencil, paint and scissors. Much of her work for magazines has been created digitally or screen-printed.

In 2007, she was appointed the first (and only) Children’s Consul on behalf of the Belgian Reading Foundation. This is a task of being an ambassador for the children, especially with regard to art, culture and particularly literature. In 2022 and 2023, she was nominated for the Alma (Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award).

Recent books

The story of Clever Krol and how he escaped death (Querido)
Takkenkind (Querido)
Stella, star of the sea (Querido)
The goose and his brother (text by Bart Moeyaert; Querido)
L’oie et son frère (La Joie de lire, France)
De hemel (text by Bart Moeyaert; Querido)
The thinking rabbit and other stories (Clarice Lispector; Querido)
The fall of the gods (collection of small classics with Michael Decock; Davidsfonds)
TABAC (a novel; Querido )
Winterfire (poems by Carl Norac, translated by Michael Decock; Lannoo)
Vive le vent d’hiver (La Joie de lire, France)
Back-and-Forth (Querido)
Va et vient (Le Rouergue, France)
Mister Paper (De Eenhoorn and Lannoo)
Where is winter (Querido)
The mouse that ate cats (Gianni Rodari; B&L Books)
A summer Sunday (Leopold)

Recent theatre texts and theatre plays

The finest days of the year (theatre)
Soepkinders (book and theatre)
How the pig got its curly tail (book and theatre)
Takkenkind (book and theatre; awarded the Boekenwelp in 2013)
Stella (book and theatre; awarded the Woutertje Pieterse Prize in 2017)

Theatre co-production as an illustrator

Peer Gynt, Brussels Philharmonic (2020-2021)
Composition in C, 2021
Wa is da met da lam?, 2021-2023
De desperados van de poezie, 2022

Exhibitions

Sarmede 2021
Moulins 2021-2022
Athens 2022
Hasselt 2022-2023
Ronse 2024

Film

In 2021, Mister Paper became an animated series for television sold in different countries.