Artist and lecturer working in a variety of media, including etching, photography, acrylic, card on wood and enamel on Perspex. Born in London, she studied at Winchester School of Art, 1972–3; gained a first-class honours degree in painting at Chelsea School of Art, 1973–6, while there helping in the workshop of John Ernest with experiments in sound vibration; then in 1977–9 made postgraduate studies at the Slade School of Fine Art in painting and computer graphics, with DAAD and Boise travelling scholarships to Germany and Japan, the former involving metamorphosis and periodic transformation of visual elements. Derges continued to have close connections with Japan: in 1981–2 she won a Rotary Foundation Scholarship there, in 1982–3 doing research into audio-visual media at Tsukuba University, later organising workshops in Tokyo.