Perhaps Kertész is reliving here the memory of the illustrated books which, savoured in the shade and cool of an attic, triggered in him the decision to take up the medium. Books, it must be believed, are part of happiness: all his work is full of nuggets relating to reading, that moment when we abstract ourselves from the world. The volume brings together one of his very first pictures as well as the last.

It was published for the exhibition held during the tenth Mois de la Photo in Paris, at the Galerie Fnac Forum, from 12 November 1998 to 23 January 1999, an exhibition that has since toured regularly in Europe.