This artwork blends so well with the library’s furnishings that it passes almost unnoticed. It is composed of two groups of maple beams piled on each other in an irregular fashion. One of the groups serves as a cover for the reception counter, and the other serves as a partition screen to define a workroom for employees.

In 1990, a section of the artwork, which was initially composed of three elements (including one partition situated east of the reception counter) was withdrawn so that computer workstations could be installed. To compensate for this modification to the initial project, the Ville acquired another of the artist’s works, Colonne stèle (1987), accessible to the public in front of the partition screen on the south wall of the library.

The rhythmic arrangement of the beams, which are somewhat disorganized and yet fixed and solid, echoes the havoc of a library in which the culture of knowledge is rooted – a theme reflected in many of the artist’s works.

The work was acquired by the Ville de Montréal, under the Québec government’s Politique d’intégration des arts à l’architecture et à l’environnement des bâtiments et des sites gouvernementaux et publics, when the Bibliothèque du Plateau-Mont-Royal was built in 1984.