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Marinus Boezem is known for his radical view of art and his works in public space. Together with Wim T. Schippers, Ger van Elk and Jan Dibbets, Boezem is seen as one of the main representatives of conceptual art and arte povera in the Netherlands in the late 1960s.

In 1960 Boezem exhibited part of a polder as a ready-made – this was his first conceptual work. Most of his works from the 1960s comprised only an idea or a proposal for an object. From the mid-1970s, Boezem began to work out his conceptual ideas in sculpture. In his sculptures, the role of the environment played an important role. Themes as air, light, sound and movement, which were the central themes in his early work, remained leading motives in his sculptures.

In the 1980s Boezem worked on several major projects in which the landscape plays an important role. His greatest and most important project in this period is The Green Cathedral (1978–1987). For this artwork, 174 Italian poplars have been planted in a polder landscape in Flevoland. The trees reproduce the floorplan of the Gothic Cathedral of Reims. Many of Boezem’s spatial works can be placed in the tradition of Land Art. Motifs such as landscapes, space, climate, light, air and cartography play a central role in Boezem’s work.