Skeleton Key

I remember precisely when I started the project all those years ago. I was sitting at a terrace café in Madrid, after a morning at the Prado, where I had seen angels, virgins, soldiers, saints, and martyrs, as one usually does in a national museum in Europe. Over a glass of wine, I found myself thinking about the four elements: earth, water, air, fire. Suddenly, I was full of questions about life and death, and at that moment, I knew there was a new book inside me.

This was not unusual. Museums have long played a role in my writing. They ignite ideas and prompt me to write down brief sentences. I might be responding to a painting’s title, a small detail, or an entire epoch. As I walk through the galleries, I create dialogues between myself and the artifacts I see. Somehow, the exciting paths lead to print, as with my poetry collection Installations: Avec et sans pronoms and my novel Hier, which I set in the Musée de la civilisation, in Quebec...