This artwork had been in exhibitions presented in the artist-run centres AXE NÉO-7 (Hull, 1995) and CIRCA (Montréal, 1995), before it was acquired by the Ville de Montréal in 2002. At the request of the Public Art Bureau, the artist agreed to reconstruct her work – a part that was on the floor no longer figures in the current composition – so that it could be integrated into the lobby of the new Bibliothèque de Parc-Extension, in 2002. The educational nature of the artwork fits particularly well with the reception area, especially because the library is situated in the William-Hingston complex, a major cultural and multi-ethnic hub.

Table des matières de supports du savoir is composed of a repertoire of 46 panels on which is a list of materials serving as supports for written, artistic, and scientific knowledge. In this anachronistic nomenclature are found words for various materials, including mahogany, zinc, slate, fibre optics, papyrus, and vinyl. Each word is engraved in a white-painted gypsum panel. Through the use of different techniques, the initial dropped capitals are made of the material to which the word refers. This treatment of the capital letter, as well as its being placed in relief in a square, is a contemporary interpretation of the skilled handiwork of medieval illuminators.

Tracing, literally and materially, the history of knowledge and its communication, this table of contents illustrates the artist’s particular interest in language and its constituent elements.

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, as applied to libraries, on the occasion of construction of the Bibliothèque de Parc-Extension within the William-Hingston complex.