Eight
years inside
Ghana's
funerary art.

R·T Wabern · 2024

— in the studio, in front of a Ghanaian fishing-boat painting.

My work moves at the intersection of art and scholarship — and in the field, the borders dissolve.

Originally from Bern, Tschumi worked for Swissair until 2002 before studying ethnology, art history and religious studies. Her PhD at the University of Basel (2007–13) focused on the figurative coffins and palanquins of the Ga in southern Ghana — where she has now spent more than five years in the field.

— Regula T.

1. 2002

   Leaves Swissair. First field trip to Ghana.

2. 2007

   Begins doctoral research at the University of Basel.

3. 2013

   Awarded PhD in Ethnology on the Ga's figurative coffins.

4. 2024

   Publishes Buried in Style with Kehrer Verlag.

5. 2025

   Nominated, Leica Oskar Barnack Award.

A small selection from twenty years of fieldwork in southern Ghana — workshops, processions and the families who commissioned a fish, a teapot, a hen to carry their dead.

— Plate I

The Hen Mother

Teshie, Ghana · 2024

RT · '24

— Plate II

Mermaid at rest

Greater Accra · 2023

RT · '23

— Plate III

The blue teapot

Jamestown, Ghana · 2025

RT · '25

— Plate IV

Don't Fear

Greater Accra · 2023

RT · '23 Featured in monograph

Three of Ghana's most innovative coffin-makers — each trained under a master, each working with me on commission.

01

Ataa Oko Addo

Coffin maker · Sculptor · Draughtsman 1919 — 2012 · La (Labadi), Greater Accra

A pioneer of the figurative coffin. After we met in 2002, Oko began drawing at the age of 84 — producing, until his death, a singular body of work now held by the Collection de l'Art Brut.

02

Paa Joe

Coffin artist · b. 1947 Pobiman, Greater Accra

Ghana's best-known living coffin artist. Trained at Kane Kwei's studio (1962–74); first shown at the Centre Pompidou in 1989 in Les Magiciens de la terre.

03

Kudjoe Affutu

Coffin artist · b. 1985 Awutu, Central Region

Trained at Paa Joe's workshop from age fifteen. Now one of the most innovative figurative-coffin makers of his generation; works in collections from Kunstmuseum Bern to Kunsthalle Hamburg.