The thickness of paper
handmade paper (abaca and flax), charcoal, 104 x 112 in
For this very large drawing, I helped my father build a 10-foot-wide table so that I could draw row by row across the width of the sheet. I started with the top row and ended with the bottom one, just like a printer, but by hand. The unworked ends of the paper were rolled onto two large cardboard tubes. I drew for about 750 hours, used 60 pencils and 16 sharpeners.
Photo credit: Sara Lagacé
Fig. 1. Make the test sheets *
2. Mix the pulp
3. Pour the pulp into the mould *
4. Stir and spread the pulp
A. Test sheets
B. Interfacing felts
C. Water stopper
D. Paper mould
E. Paper pulp
* Reproduced from Diderot et d’Alembert’s Encyclopédie illustrations
a. Paddle
b. Staple gun
c. C‑clamp
d. Large China cap strainer
e. Hollander beater
1. Motor 2. Beating roll 3. Vat
4. Stand 5. Cover 6. Bucket
f. Paddle mixing drill
g. Blender
h. Measuring spoons
i. pH measuring strips
Fig. 1. Build the required tools
2. Press with a paint roller *
3. Press with a lawn roller
4. Guide during pressing *
A. Mosquito screen on wood frame
B. Building form tube
C. Bridge
D. Absorbent towel
E. Interfacing felts
F. Paper sheet under creation
G. Cotton cloth
H. Felt dryer
* Reproduced from Diderot et d’Alembert’s Encyclopédie illustrations
a. Brush
b. Bone folder
c. Thermohygrometer
d. Lawn roller
e. Paint rollers
f. Wet/dry vacuum
g. Hollander beater *
1. Vat 2. Beating roll 3. Cover
* Reproduced from Diderot et d’Alembert’s Encyclopédie illustrations
handmade paper (cotton), thread, 104 x 148 in
Photo credit: Merlin Bertrand-Hamel
handmade paper (abaca), watercolour, thread, 136 x 79 in
handmade paper (abaca and cotton), 128 x 109 in
The thickness of paper
This work consists of four elements, each in handmade paper specially prepared for the project. It was designed as part of the Art and Architecture Integration Policy for the Pierrefonds Public Library.
The creation of the large paper sheets, which took several months, required the participation, advice, trust and resources of many friends and collaborators. I would like to thank, in alphabetical order: Danie Bertrand, Merlin Bertrand‑Hamel, Éric Bolduc, Paul Bourgault, Élaine Denis, André Hamel, Sara Lagacé, Francine Lalonde, Ashley Miller, Brendon O’Neill, Andrée‑Anne Proulx and her parents, Karen Trask, Bibiana Vera and Johanne Wolfe.
The encyclopedia and papermaking
The Encyclopédie, ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers [Encyclopedia, or a Systematic Dictionary of the Sciences, Arts, and Crafts] by Diderot and d’Alembert is the first French language encyclopedia. Published between 1751 and 1772, it contains 17 volumes of text and 11 volumes of plates. A colossal and controversial undertaking in its day, the Encyclopédie was a considerable success and contributed greatly to the dissemination of ideas and knowledge. Today, it is available online in its entirety. The Encyclopédie devotes 14 plates to "Papetterie", the manufacture of paper. With these illustrations as a reference, I composed two contemporary plates to show the process of making the handmade paper on which they were drawn.
Void and materiality
The blank page is the absence and the place of all possibilities. This emptiness of words or signs is also a fulness of matter. On this sheet left entirely white, the texture generated by the cutting in small squares catches the light and reveals a form, a trace. This large sheet acts as a page, but also as a screen. The pixilated surface corresponds to the proportion of digital books on the total collection of the Pierrefonds Library at the time of its expansion in 2018.
The scroll and the archived fragments
Although the scroll was a widely used writing media, it has been completely replaced by the codex, a book with bound folios that became widespread from the first century CE and is still the standard today. We are now witnessing a new revolution and the physical book, while not destined to disappear anytime soon, is no longer the absolute guardian of knowledge that it once was. This collection of fragments is an invented archaeology of paper archives where writing is also made of paper. It invites to imagine the shape of future archives and their legibility in the distant future.
The book in one folded sheet
The oldest known paper specimens were found in China and date from the 2nd century BCE. More than a thousand years would pass before the first European paper mills were established. The discovery of paper, this miracle material, light, resistant, inexpensive and above all very thin, has considerably reduced the space occupied by the texts that were previously written on clay, stone or wood tablets. However, paper has a thickness that, although minimal, quickly makes it cumbersome. What is the total surface of a book? If a 900-page pocket book was made of one large folded sheet, printed on both sides, it would be the size of this blue sheet.