The rigorous, minimalist handling of her means as well as the intense concentration with which she performed within spaces of light and shadow are the most salient characteristics of her artistic work.

The choice between dance and the visual arts was decided in favour of painting and sculpture, mediums that allowed her an independent creative exploration.

Her earliest dated works used expressive strokes, concentrated on individual figures with minimal background information and were largely executed in earthen tones.

Sometimes the figures would display physical abnormalities and/or be seen from unusual perspectives that indicated vulnerable socio-psychological or emotional states and thus contributed to the impression of being surreal.

Her curiosity was enhanced through her visits to the Rembrandt van Rijn studies in oils in the Washington National Gallery of Art.

[9] By the end of the 1960s Hoover had reduced her figures to flat planes and contours before primary hues of red, blue and yellow.

In 1971 she was introduced to Karel Appel, Dutch painter, sculptor and poet, who was looking for a caretaker for his Château Molesmes in France.

The closely cropped glimpses of the artist's body and dark and light contrasts have a nuanced visual flow and intimacy.

This alternative space rapidly became a lively centre of artistic exchange and provided Hoover with an invaluable support system.

That same year she teamed up with the artist Sam Schoenbaum and did a performance tour through New York, Los Angeles, Vancouver and Montreal.

In 1979 she teamed up with Peter Ungerleider to do a tour called "Lapses and Dissolves" which was shown in Washington D.C., Boston and Montreal.

"[8] While video and performance coexisted in her work, and are closely accompanied by photography, certain technical and aesthetic decisions appeared successively.

[12] Of the several video tapes concerned with colour she made this year "Color Pieces" (1980, 9'51", according to EIA, 12'21", according to the Selected Work 1974 - 2002, Netherlands Media Art Institute, Amsterdam, 2009)[13] is undoubtedly one of the most impressive.

The result of this important year for her was a travelling solo exhibition with catalogue (DAAD Gallery, Berlin, Neue Galerie Aachen, Stedelijk Museum, Schiedham and Künstlerhaus, Stuttgart).

In an interview with Kate Elwers, Nan Hoover states: "I find it important, especially in the performances, that I give the public the space to go into themselves.

In the same year choreographer Lucinda Childs commissioned the artist to create lighting and costumes for the ballet Naama in Charleroi, Belgium.

In her publication "Night Letters", (Cologne, Salon Verlag, 2000) Hoover writes: "it is not so important how we look at something but rather how we perceive this can be done in a second and last decades or a life time."

Hoover also continued to make light installations: "Art in Castles" in Kasteel Huis Bergh in 's-Heerenberg, the Netherlands, in 1997, and "Lichtrouten" in Lüdenscheid, Germany, in 2002 and 2003.