Immerse yourself in the visual world of some of the greatest literary names and explore the walls of images that fed their imagination and inspired their creations.

Carefully hung pictures and photographs, postcards pinned to cork or, more recently, digital images ‘pinned’ to a virtual wall... we love surrounding ourselves with images. Because they evoke memories, because they adorn our interiors and because they inspire us. These images reflect our personal, social and cultural history. But what about writers? How have walls of images influenced and continue to influence literary creativity? When does a shared cultural practice take on a particular meaning for a man or woman of letters?

Based on archive files and current testimonies, the Writers’ walls of images exhibition presents a number of reconstructions of the visual environments of writers’ workspaces, most of which are being shown for the first time. The tour highlights the different forms and functions of walls of images, with a wide range of examples from the late 19th century to the present day, from Émile Verhaeren to Hélène Giannecchini and Philippe De Jonckheere, Roger Martin du Gard, Colette, Christian Dotremont and Louis Aragon.

Exhibition produced as part of the ‘HANDLING: Writers Handling Pictures. A Material Intermediality (1880-today)’, programme directed by Anne Reverseau at UCLouvain and funded by the European Research Council (ERC) from 2019 to 2024 (grant No. 804259)

Curators : Anne Reverseau (Professor at UCLouvain and Director of Research) and Jessica Desclaux (Research Fellow at the FNRS).