Books have featured as subject matter in R. B. Kitaj’s art and are a constant inspiration to Kitaj the artist. Inevitably, his work has sometimes been described as ‘bookish’, and has attracted written commentaries. In recent years Kitaj has started writing about some of his pictures in a series of ‘Prefaces’, some of which are to be published as a book; the ‘Prefaces’ are, however, explorations rather than explanations.