Heart, Culture, and Pedagogy Inaugurated: September 2011 Dimensions: 39 feet wide by 42 feet high Location: 155 Belvedere North Opening the great book of Sherbrooke history and rediscovering a part of our past. Influenced by master painters of trompe-l’œil such as Cornelis Norbertus Gijsbrechts (1630-1675) and Giuseppe Maria Crespi (1665-1747), this mural evokes the history of the neighbourhood, a rich site of culture, literature, and knowledge. The work brings together fact and fiction embroidered with the colours and lives of the local Lomas, Paton, and Kayser factories. The mural is located a stone’s throw from the neighbouring Éva-Senécal library. In the painting, the stories of the building become the levels of a oversize bookcase housing Lilliputian characters and giant books from the literary world of the Eastern Townships region. This mural is an allegory of Sherbrooke’s standing as a centre of knowledge and the region’s cultural cradle, as well as a metaphor of the local literary universe, with more than 100 authors represented.