ART
MICHAEL PUTLAND
HIS GRAVE SITS WITHIN THE Cohen family plot, near the front gate of the Congregation Shaar Hashomayim Cemetery at the slope of Montreal’s Mount Royal. The headstone— near that of his great-grandfather Lazarus, buried here a century ago, in 1917—is surrounded by flowers, fan art and yahrzeit candles. But even without that makeshift shrine, you would recognize Cohen’s marker, engraved with his Unified Heart (two hearts, one upside down and superimposed over the other, resembling the Star of David), which he designed for the cover of his 1984 poetry collection, The Book of Mercy. It’s a symbol that is all over Montreal this month, as the 375-yearold city fêtes the late singer-songwriter on the first anniversary of his death, at 82, just weeks after he released his final album, You Want It Darker.