Created during the guarded process for the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, each painting represents a history of what could have been. They capture a rare "potential history," embodying the alternative visual identities the prize could have adopted. Executed in gouache, the works possess a velvety, matte finish and a tactile immediacy that emphasizes the artist’s direct hand, granting each piece a raw and permanent presence. These four works on paper form a unified suite, bound together by their shared medium, identical scale, and the singular historical moment of their creation.

Visually, the suite is threaded together by the recurring protagonist of the white dove, which Bjertnæs transforms from a passive symbol into an active figure navigating complex psychological landscapes. The series engages in a sophisticated dialogue with art history: the economy of line and cut-out aesthetic nod to the modernism of Matisse and Picasso, while the surrealist juxtaposition of day and night recalls Magritte. In other variations, the deep violet palettes and haloed figures evoke a synthesis of German Expressionism and Byzantine iconography, while the merging figures under a starry sky suggest the poetic gravity of Chagall. Together, these references reinforce the dove’s role not just as a bird, but as a resilient, timeless agent of peace.