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Jef Geys was undoubtedly one of the first artists, starting in the 1960s, not only to identify the artwork with a proper name, but, moreover, to make an artwork out of the proper name alone – so, for example, Jef van Dijck, Marc Callewaert, Betty, Lola, Jef Sleeckx: as many proper names that sometimes refer to artworks, at other times to nothing other than their own name. Through the proliferation of proper names, Geys multiplied the “minor identities” that are the very ‘matter’ of his practice.

(Marie-Ange Brayer)