Product Review

Secondhand Reading began life as a film constructed from a succession of drawings made by William Kentridge (born 1955) in 2013, on the pages of old books. Conceived as a kind of secondhand reading in which books are translated into a filming of books, it is both a narrative--it begins at the beginning and will eventually get to the end--and an acknowledgment of the necessity of repetition, inconsistency and the illogical. One of today's most preeminent and popular artists, Kentridge has made many flip books and book-length works that attest to his longstanding interest not only in film (he has been making animated films for two decades) but also in the relationship between drawing, photography and filmmaking. At 800 pages, Secondhand Reading is by far his most ambitious volume. An exquisitely produced publication, it boasts a robust French-fold dustjacket.