Beth Newman-Maguire is an Irishwoman who studied at the Dublin College of Art and Design and at the University of Ulster, where she acquired her Master of Fine Arts in 1998. Since then, she has been working with great success as a sculptor. First, there are her many works for public spaces, with which she is represented on the Emerald Isle. Here her artistic spectrum ranges from large-scale sculptures (a Viking ship nine metres in length) and land art (an environment consisting of 110 logs, for instance). Her further work as a sculptor is distinguished by the many materials she can use and combine; in addition, she also devotes herself to photography and video art. Newman-Maguire likes to take up poetic, even “talking” motifs, such as her “Bed of Roses”, one of an entire series of sculptures comprising variations on the basic motif of the bed, which gives concrete expression to the idiomatic formulation of the desire for love and security.