Demolition, and then emptiness. Where to begin? How to start writing again? The path Cynthia Edul proposes in this book is slow and fleeting. It is made up of fragments, of “now” moments, of jungles of thought, of images, sounds, and phrases that she recovers with the simplicity and precision of a single stitch—and which, at the same time, she makes available in her architectural exhibition: a literary zone under construction. At the beginning, like pilgrim poets, it will be a matter of passing through A Door in the Middle of Nowhere, finding the zero point of desire. What follows is to look as if one had never seen before. To probe the origin of the words we write on the blank page and venture into the territory of the image, to make the gaze seem strange. And finally, to bear witness. To speak and write to those we love, to save them from oblivion.

“These writings are a tapestry of ideas and reflections on the experience of writing. They stem from what I’ve learned from my teachers and my students, from accompanying manuscripts over many years, from listening to texts, and from seeking clues in the diaries and letters of beloved writers—who I call upon to guide me through the tangled jungle of reality and shed a little light on the way writing and life intertwine.”