Gioia Smid met Fiep in 1983 when she was organizing an exhibition about Annie M.G. Schmidt. In this exhibition the emphasis was on Annie’s work for the theatre, but some attention was also devoted to the books. Gioia visited Fiep at home to find original llustrations 
for this part of the exhibition. After the exhibition Fiep and Gioia kept in touch. When Fiep started to need some help, Gioia did the shopping for her and agreed to visit Fiep regularly on Saturday afternoons. Without exception, she always brought herring and mackerel for Fiep when she came on these visits, which became a tradition lasting for more than ten years. As Fiep grew older, she looked forward to them more and more.

Fiep asked Gioia, who was an art historian, to make an archive of her oeuvre. Fiep loved to look at her drawings, especially the old illustrations she had not seen for a long time. She had something interesting to say about nearly every drawing, particularly about things like composition or use of colour, and why she had decided to illustrate a certain situation from 
the story or to show something completely different from the situation which was described. It 
was obviously good for Fiep to be occupied with her work in this way, and Gioia made one day in the week free to work on the archive. It soon became clear how extensive the collection was, and the idea arose of organizing an exhibition. They chose to hold it in the Kunsthal in Rotterdam, because Fiep had done her training at the Rotterdam Academy of Art. The Kunsthal accepted the idea with open arms, Gioia became a guest curator, and 13 September 2003 was fixed as the opening date. However, Fiep was worried that she ‘would not make it’.

Because there was ample time to prepare the exhibition, Gioia had an opportunity to get a better overview of the work and to compile a book about Fiep’s life and work. She conducted many interviews with Fiep for this book. All the attention devoted to her work made Fiep realize that it was important to ensure that her work would be properly handed over and cared for. Fortunately, she took the necessary steps on time.