The context of the competition organized by the Public Art Bureau in 2015 was the renovation and expansion of the Pierrefonds Library. In compliance with the Québec government’s Politique d’intégration des arts à l’architecture et à l’environnement des bâtiments et des sites gouvernementaux et publics, the site was required to incorporate an artwork. The commission called a monumental fragmented artwork to be integrated into different walls of the library for users to see as they pass by.

L’épaisseur du papier is integrated into four sections of the ground floor and first floor of the Pierrefonds Library. Contrasting with the simplicity of the architecture, the four components of the work highlight the materiality of paper, even though its omnipresence in this site of learning might make it seem banal. In doing this, Bertrand-Hamel probes the history of paper in relation to the world of the book. With a focus on sustainable development, she made her own paper from recycled plant fibres.

Le livre en une seule feuille pliée
The discovery of paper considerably reduced the space taken up by texts, which had previously been carved into clay, stone, or wood tablets. Even so, paper was thick enough to quickly make it cumbersome. The large blue sheet of folded paper shows the total area that a 900-page paperback would take up.

Le rouleau et les fragments archivés
Inspired by the oldest known biblical manuscripts, Bertrand-Hamel explores the form that future archives might take. She therefore invents paper archives in which the writing is paper. Her scroll is formed of sheets of various formats, sewn together and tinted with watercolour.

L’encyclopédie et la fabrication du papier
Inspired by the 14 plates devoted to papermaking in Diderot and Alembert’s Encyclopédie (1751–72), Bertrand-Hamel produced a series of contemporary plates on papermaking on which she drew, in charcoal, both characters from the Encyclopédie and contemporary figures, including a self-portrait of the artist at work. The contemporary elements refer to the papermaking process and to certain moments in the creation of L’épaisseur du papier.

Le vide et la matérialité
With this sheet symbolizing a blank page, Bertand-Hamel addresses dematerialization even as she dwells on the materiality of paper. One section of the work, cut into small squares held by strings, creates a surface mark, a texture that captures light. The blank page also refers to a screen whose pixelated surface corresponds to the proportion of digital books out of all the books in the library at the time the expansion started.

The context of the competition organized by the Public Art Bureau in 2015 was the renovation and expansion of the Pierrefonds Library. In compliance with the Québec government’s Politique d’intégration des arts à l’architecture et à l’environnement des bâtiments et des sites gouvernementaux et publics, the site was required to incorporate an artwork. The commission called a monumental fragmented artwork to be integrated into different walls of the library for users to see as they pass by.