Alain Paiement endeavours to create a topography of space through an exercise in photographic mapping and by detailing the contents of the places depicted in minute collages. Here he scrutinises, in fine detail, strange books depository protected by a grate which situates us, with irony, outside its sanctuary. The grate tends to return our gaze to the surface of the image, an effect that is heightened by the artist's technique: a bled-off image stretched over a large bare section of a wall. In the face of this extreme surface, any attempt to give depth to the image would be in vain.

Since the 1980s, Alain Paiement's work has been shown on numerous occasions in North America and in Europe. He drew particular attention in 2002 at the Galerie de l'UQAM, which devoted a large solo show to his work. He also participated in 1999 in the third Tokyo Photography Biennial and in the Kunsthalle in Krems, Austria. The Canadian Centre for Architecture is currently showing his work as part of its Tangent e exhibition. His work is found in various public collections in Canada and abroad.