I happened to end up on a trip to Brussels last year and visited the plaster workshop there.

  There were countless discoveries to be made. Still lifes followed still lifes. Items were randomly grouped together. Ceres, the goddess of fertility, stood next to John the Baptist and seemed to whisper something in his ear. And the revolutionary Jean Paul Marat bridged the millennia to the charioteer of Delphi.

   I marvelled at the plaster replicas of all kinds in various states of preservation. For instance, in a corner poor Queen Louise d'Orleans found herself deprived of her magnificent curls; objects of pure white plaster but also those with blemishes and dirt, some even damaged. Contrary to other museums, where historical objects are presented almost as if they were new, there is a rough authenticity in the Atelier de Moulage, which fascinated me (and still does to this day).

   It did not take long to decide to make a book. This also enabled me to visit this marvellous place more often.

   Surprisingly, none of the residents I met during my stays in Brussels knew about the Atelier de Moulage. It is somewhat hidden at the back of a huge museum building and it is well worth finding the way.