TAFELBOEK was begun at a time when the artist lived a somewhat reclusive life in a small subterranean apartment in Hillbrow, Johannesburg - almost like a monk in a cloister. The apartment was too small to house a large sculpture, and TAFELBOEK was designed to fit snugly through the door when carried in by two 'pallbearers'. When the work was inside the apartment, it could be used as a table, but when the need arose it could be opened, like a book, to fill the room. It was foreseen that TAFELBOEK might be used in its closed state as communion-table at a church. It would then be a kind of 'coffin', speaking of the death of Christ. When it is opened, however, it becomes like the city-buildings of Hillbrow, or more specifically, like a new Jerusalem or the new life that begins through the death of Christ. Willem Boshoff took pride in the fact that his father was a carpenter, as was Christ's.

 

TAFELBOEK is a forerunner of many works by Willem Boshoff that deal indirectly with the crucifixion of the 'Logos' or 'word' on a wooden cross, and consequently with the use of trees and paper as basis for the processing and storing of information.