Bench Players is a series of failed, rejected, or unused animals from Rop van Mierlo’s archive; the reserve bench animals. Rop van Mierlo works with various mediums but starts his process mostly with drawings or paintings. Control – or the absence of it – is an important part of his work. He is best known for his picture book Wild Animals, which won a Dutch Design Award in 2011. Van Mierlo is intrigued by the human need to control nature. Using a wet-on-wet technique, he paints animals that he can’t control. Published in collaboration with do you read me?! and that said, we even made a tote bag to celebrate this collaboration, Book Signing and Launch Event with Rop van Mierlo was on 7th of September at Reference Studios on Potsdamer Straße 100. And we are happy to reveal, that both, Bench Players and our W.A. x do you read me?! Tote Bag is part of our 10th edition of our Surprise Subscription, too.