GtkIconView empty rows

[<zahlenmeer gmx de>]

Let's start with what I try to achieve in the end:
I want to have a grid widget where I can freely fill the cells (so
its possible - and likely - that there is empty space between the
items) and have the same convenience for rendering (I just have to
specify the label and the pixbuf, rendering happens behind the
scenes) and selection (rubberband selection for example) as GtkIconView
offers.
Is GtkIconView the right widget for this task? I got empty cells by
simply letting the iterator advance without setting values for some
rows. But those empty cells are sill selected via rubberband and thats
probably not the only issue I will run into.

Kind regards