In her early work from the 1970s and 1980s, the artist worked intensively with graphite to expand the boundaries of classical drawing. The works—often multi-part and expansive—feature geometric forms on Ingres paper, with subtle nuances and shading remaining visible as physical traces of the creative process. In a physical feat of strength, Rhodius drives the graphite into the pores of the paper with intense pressure. Through this intensive manipulation, the paper stretches, creases, and warps; the drawing breaks out of the two-dimensional plane. This phase of her work was first documented in the solo exhibition “Drawings 1977–1980” in 1980 at the Lenbachhaus in Munich.

In the years that followed, Rhodius increasingly turned to writing and text as artistic material. In her works, writing appears not only as a vehicle of meaning but also as an autonomous visual element. Fragments of words are detached from their linear context and used rhythmically as symbols and graphic structural elements. Rhodius deliberately plays with legibility to explore and condense spaces of meaning. The artist conceives of linguistic change as analogous to geological processes that represent the evolution, transformation, and morphological erosion of language. She draws a parallel between erosion by ocean surf and the development of language: just as pebbles are shaped and polished by the surf over millennia, words change, shorten, and condense through continuous use over millennia. This analogy is made visible in black-and-white photographs of Icelandic stone beaches, into which Rhodius inserts black pictographic characters using double exposure.
Chains of words in various languages form an abstract network. Like an “etymological researcher,” Rhodius visualizes linguistic affinities and historical developments. By stacking letters, the written word loses its semantic legibility and transforms into a rhythmic cipher. This visual erosion illustrates the process of linguistic erosion. The word evolves back into a universal, archaic symbol. In her more recent works, she continues to explore this idea of layering: using stencils and hand screen printing (in collaboration with A.G. Fischer), she applies transparent text-image structures onto an abstract, painterly background, creating a new, multi-layered symbiosis of painting and typographic art.