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Once Removed: Short stories
Written by the Johannesburg-based editor and arts writer, David Mann, Once Removed is a collection of 13 subtly interlinked stories inspired by the South African art world.
With their unique views into high-end galleries, crumbling museums, immanent art fairs and out-of-work critics, the stories in Once Removed traverse the galleries, theatres, artist studios and archives that characterise the contemporary art world. But they also zero in on the homes, private lives, daily journeys and emotional interiorities of artists, art-lovers and those whose lives have been changed in ways both profound and banal, through novel encounters with a work of art.
"David Mann’s debut collection of stories about art and artists is elegant, plaintive, wry and urgent. It is an affectionate deliberation of the importance of art – and writing about it – in our current time of disquiet." – Sean O'Toole, editor, curator and art critic
“The stories comprising Once Removed are consistently excellent: they are elegantly composed and provoking. Each depicts and evokes places, scenes, and interactions in subtle yet vivid ways. I have not been this compelled by a collection of short fiction in a considerable time.” – Prof. Michael Titlestad, Department of English, Wits.
“Stories about art, artists, writers – gently tussling with where they belong, and with ideas about ideas and what can seem like the travails of creative life. I enjoy the way Mann expresses human frailty, and social nuance. There is also a tender humour running through the stories like a silvery thread.” – Laurice Taitz, writer and editor
“The stories are richly varied... Moral piety is crushed, the lies built into the artworld exposed, the struggle of youth to carve out its path in an uncertain market, the book’s emotional core. As one of Mann’s characters remarks, ‘It is my job to gather the ... words, images, infographics, and other rogue malleable things’. It is the last strung bead that is most telling. If anything, Mann’s keenly attuned and biting prose is rogue.” – Ashraf Jamal, art critic and cultural theorist
With their unique views into high-end galleries, crumbling museums, immanent art fairs and out-of-work critics, the stories in Once Removed traverse the galleries, theatres, artist studios and archives that characterise the contemporary art world. But they also zero in on the homes, private lives, daily journeys and emotional interiorities of artists, art-lovers and those whose lives have been changed in ways both profound and banal, through novel encounters with a work of art.
"David Mann’s debut collection of stories about art and artists is elegant, plaintive, wry and urgent. It is an affectionate deliberation of the importance of art – and writing about it – in our current time of disquiet." – Sean O'Toole, editor, curator and art critic
“The stories comprising Once Removed are consistently excellent: they are elegantly composed and provoking. Each depicts and evokes places, scenes, and interactions in subtle yet vivid ways. I have not been this compelled by a collection of short fiction in a considerable time.” – Prof. Michael Titlestad, Department of English, Wits.
“Stories about art, artists, writers – gently tussling with where they belong, and with ideas about ideas and what can seem like the travails of creative life. I enjoy the way Mann expresses human frailty, and social nuance. There is also a tender humour running through the stories like a silvery thread.” – Laurice Taitz, writer and editor
“The stories are richly varied... Moral piety is crushed, the lies built into the artworld exposed, the struggle of youth to carve out its path in an uncertain market, the book’s emotional core. As one of Mann’s characters remarks, ‘It is my job to gather the ... words, images, infographics, and other rogue malleable things’. It is the last strung bead that is most telling. If anything, Mann’s keenly attuned and biting prose is rogue.” – Ashraf Jamal, art critic and cultural theorist
152 pages, Paperback
Published March 8, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 11, 2024
Funny, fun, smart and heartfelt at the same time.
September 11, 2025
Every story is a snapshot of the South African art scene. I loved them all so much. There are such uniquely South African moments and always with a twist of humour. I really enjoyed the stories, reading them with my partner over a long time, and I wish there were more!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews