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The main and immediate reason for the publication of this book were two upcoming exhibitions: Slam, Ramble, Perform in De Warande in Turnhout (June 2018) and a large-scale solo exhibition at the Middelheim Open Air Sculpture Museum in Antwerp in the summer of 2019. The monograph is published by Occasional Papers from London and initiated and co-published by the Antwerp nonprofit organization Escautville, generously supported by Flanders State of The Art.

Ria Pacquée’s oeuvre has never been mapped out before in its entirety like in Slammm, Ramble, Perform and even though the monograph does not intend to be a catalogue raisonné – instead taking a bird's-eye view on a diverse body of work – it sheds a clear light on the artist's extensive, tireless and relevant oeuvre.

Ria Pacquée herself dug deep into the archives, so the book includes many never-seen-before photographs and documents, alongside her own short, poetic statements. The main chapters focus on the performances (1974-2017), the stories of Madame and It (1982-1995) and the ‘ongoing archives’ series.

Besides seminal texts by the late acclaimed art critic Jean Fisher (Ria Pacquée: Don’t Look Now, about the ‘street rambles’) and anthropologist Michael Taussig’s In the Desert with Ria Pacquée, about her 'Color Walks', art historian Antony Hudek wrote Ria Pacquée – Almost There, an introductory text starting with her early days in Antwerp in the 1970s.

The book concludes with the artist in her own words. To be a Pilgrim on the Road is a candid conversation between befriended artist Michael Curran and Ria Pacquée about her video work.