Bettina Furnée was born in the Netherlands and trained as a lettercutter and art historian. She set up her lettering studio in Cambridge in 1989 and went on to gain an MA in Public Art at Chelsea College of Art and Design (1992-93).
Over the years her work developed into a contemporary art practice, which is rooted in notions of site and uses language as its primary material. She has worked on many public art commissions, producing site-specific text works in different media. The literary content of the work is created through research, or in collaboration with local participants or writers. She recently initiated two complex and collaborative art projects: If Ever You’re in the Area www.ifever.org.uk took place at two arts venues and coastal sites in East Anglia and included temporary and moving image work, focused on fear of invasion and land use. Powerhouse www.powerhouse.me.uk was an 8-week long live word association game held at Cambridge University Library, which playfully investigated subjectivity, and resulted in a web archive and time-lapse film. She is currently part of Escalator Visual Arts, and has a studio at Wysing Arts Centre.