The Mountain and the Volcano - The Invisible Oeuvre of Leonard Cohen

On 6, 7 and 8 October 2026, a temporary exhibition devoted to the work of Leonard Cohen (1934–2016) will be held at Ghent University’s Book Tower. The exhibition is organised in conjunction with an international academic conference taking place at the same time.

The exhibition features a modest yet exclusive selection of reproduced archival documents: manuscripts, drafts, notebooks, correspondence, memorabilia, and more. Never before has so much exclusive Leonard Cohen material been made publicly accessible. The exhibition is the result of an ongoing research collaboration with the University of Toronto, where a substantial part of Cohen’s archives is preserved.

Practical information

1. The Scientific Congress: Global Perspectives on a Multi-disciplinary Artist – International Conference (Faculty library of Arts and Philosophy)

• Dates: Tuesday, October 6 to Thursday, October 8, 2026
• Location: Faculty library of Arts and Philosophy Ghent University, Rozier 44, Ghent
• What: On the occasion of the tenth anniversary of Cohen's passing, this conference brings together international scholars to re-evaluate his multifaceted legacy. Central to the event is breaking down traditional disciplinary boundaries, with specific attention to his music, literature, religious influences, and the translation of his work around the world. The complete program can be found on the website of the conference 'Global Perspectives on a Multi-disciplinary Artist'.
• Keynote speakers:  Robert Lecker (McGill University) and Sherry Simon (Concordia University).
• Contact: for scientific questions and contact with the conference organizers, please email  cohen2026@ugent.be. (Please note: do not use this address for practical questions regarding the exhibition or the Handelsbeurs).

2. The exhibition: The Mountain and the Volcano - The Invisible Oeuvre of Leonard Cohen (Boekentoren)

• Location: Boekentoren, Rozier 3, Ghent (recognizable by the black gate).
• Admission: The exhibition is free to visit.
• Opening hours: Tuesday, October 6 to 8 Thursday, October 8, between 10:00 – 12:00 and 13:00 – 17:00
• Extra evening opening: On Tuesday, October 6th, there is a special extension until 19:00.
• Contact: for practical questions regarding the exhibition, please email boekentoren@ugent.be.

3. For students and staff: Reading group 'UGent leest'

• When: Tuesday, October 6
• What: As part of the reading initiative, an exclusive reading group focusing on the work of Cohen is being organized.
• Admission: Accessible only to UGent staff and students.

4. For the general public: Cultural Evening & Themed Dinner (Handelsbeurs)

• What: An atmospheric cultural evening in collaboration with the Ghent Handelsbeurs. The program features live music by Lara Chedraoui and Floris De Decker, interviews with privileged witnesses, and a screening of the first documentary film about Cohen.
• Extra: for those interested, there is an exclusive Montreal-Cohen-style themed dinner before the event.
• Tickets: Admission tickets for both the cultural evening and the themed dinner can only be ordered via the Handelsbeurs website.

The Mountain and the Volcano

“The archive is the mountain; the published work is the volcano.” Throughout the many interviews he gave during his lifetime, Cohen frequently returned to the importance of his personal archive. “This is my real work; so I keep adding to this heap of blackened pages,” he once told a French journalist. Compared to the relatively limited number of published albums, poetry collections and novels, the archive indeed contains an immeasurably larger body of material.

From an early age, Cohen preserved virtually everything connected to his artistic process. He was a writer who developed his thoughts and verses on paper and can therefore be described as what the German literary scholar Siegfried Scheibe called a Papierarbeiter (“paper worker”). For Cohen, the creative process did not take place solely in the mind (as with a Kopfarbeiter, or “head worker”); it emerged through the act of writing itself. Many Cohen admirers will be familiar with this aspect of his practice. The more than eighty verses written for “Hallelujah” have become legendary, as have the multiple versions of the well-known song “Chelsea Hotel”, whose title “Chelsea Hotel #2” explicitly points to the existence of an earlier version.

In recent years, the archives have gradually taken shape, and researchers have gained increasing access to these documents, which are of immense scholarly value. The material offers insight not only into Cohen’s creative process, but also into the local and international networks in which he operated, and into the ways he sought to shape his public image – for example through his correspondence with publishers and translators.

Cohen’s relationship with the University of Toronto dates back to the early 1960s, when, as a young man in his twenties, he donated the first portion of his archives to the university library. This initial donation included a series of unpublished short stories and early versions of his literary work, such as his debut poetry collection Let Us Compare Mythologies (1956) and his controversial novel Beautiful Losers (1966), which was translated into Dutch in 1971. Additional donations followed over the years, bringing the collection to approximately 140 archival boxes today.

Remembering 

This autumn marks the tenth anniversary of Cohen’s death. The occasion has inspired the academic conference Leonard Cohen: Global Perspectives on a Multi-disciplinary Artist, which will bring together more than fifty Cohen scholars from Belgium and abroad. Rather than serving as a hagiographic tribute, the conference aims to nuance and reassess existing perceptions of Leonard Cohen.

When an artist dies, collective memory gradually solidifies, leaving only a handful of enduring images. This is true of Leonard Cohen as well, who was far more than the wise and gentle bard, celebrated for timeless and universal song lyrics. Cohen was a songwriter, poet, playwright, novelist, visual artist, filmmaker, musical theatre writer, television host, and much more. For a long time, he was regarded as a provocateur who challenged readers and audiences both on stage and in his work. His writing was often closely connected to the social and political contexts in which it was created. In his native Canada, he was an award-winning poet from the outset of his literary career, whereas in Europe he is primarily known as a singer-songwriter.

The conference also seeks to foster dialogue between North American and European audiences. How can, should, and do we read and listen to Cohen today, exactly ten years after his death in 2016? And do European audiences view Cohen differently from Canadian readers and listeners? The organisers – Francis Mus (Ghent University), Kait Pinder (Acadia University, Canada), and Joel Deshaye (Memorial University, Canada) – note that Leonard Cohen was long appreciated in Canada as a writer and was required reading in many university literature programmes. Much of the Canadian scholarship on Cohen from the 1960s and ‘70s is now rarely considered but seems prescient in retrospect. Today, some of his works seem more relevant than ever, while others have become the subject of critical debate. Many of these discussions have barely reached Europe.

The conference organizers Francis Mus, Kait Pinder, and Joel Deshaye would like to explicitly thank Ghent University and the University of Toronto. We are grateful for the financial support of the FWO and of the following universities: Acadia University, University of Antwerp, University of Liège, Memorial University, and the University of Strasbourg. We are grateful for Maarten Massa for his help. We are also indebted to Maarten Massa for his support. A special word of thanks goes to Loryl MacDonald, Natalya Rattan, and David Fernandez from the University of Toronto.