In the fall of 2010, Jessica Warboys discovered photographic portraits of dancer Hélène Vanel in the disused Bibliothèque Smith-Lesouëf, Nogent-sur-Marne. Warboys later discovered an unpublished manuscript by Vanel in the adjoining archives of the Maison nationale des artistes, a retirement home for elderly artists. The artist then  translated the texts herself and condensed the drama, and thus shifted Vanel’s role from manuscript to script.