Mathias Toubro’s heaven offers fractions of a story set in what seems to be the alps. The works take shape in a range of paintings and a video installation. Reading Olga Tokarczuk’s Empusium on his suggestion, I begin to see the inspiration Mathias might have drawn from the novel (amongst other sources he mentioned). Strolling through a nearby park, I start to formulate, in Tokarczuk’s tone, a story to the paintings Mathias has made, as a backdrop. Fiction as a tool to understanding. Empusium, set in 1913 and published in 2022, explores themes of illness, wellness, and transformation. In the spa town of Göbersdorf in Lower Silesia, the protagonist Mieczysław Wojnicz arrives seeking reprieve from tuberculosis. The story delves into the ambiguous terrain of healing practices in early 20th-century Europe, where medical science, alternative therapies, and occult practices converge. The idea of the spa – or mountain retreat – becomes both a place of refuge and a metaphor for the fragmented nature of modern self-care practices and wellness. The patients in Göbersdorf confront not just their physical ailments but also deeper psychological and existential disquiet, undergoing treatments and faced with philosophies that blend science with spirituality.