The Last Book

Photographs by

Reinier Gerritsen

Anthony, Piers. On a Pale Horse. When Zane shot Death, he learned, too late, that he would have to assume his place, speeding over the world riding his pale horse, and ending the lives of others. Sooner than he would have thought possible, Zane found himself being drawn into Satan's plot. From the series "The Last Book" © Reinier Gerritsen

Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. In one of the most universally loved and admired English novels, a country squire of no great means must marry off his five vivacious daughters. Jane Austen's art transformed this effervescent tale of rural romance into a witty, shrewdly observed satire of English country life. From the series "The Last Book" © Reinier Gerritsen

Auster, Paul. Oracle Night. 34-year-old novelist Sidney Orr enters a stationery shop in Brooklyn and buys a blue notebook. For the next nine days, Orr will live under the spell of this blank book, trapped inside a world of eerie premonitions and bewildering events that threaten to destroy his marriage and undermine his faith in reality. From the series "The Last Book" © Reinier Gerritsen

Baisden, Michael. God's Gift to Women: A Novel. A widower and father to ten-year-old Samantha, Julian wants nothing more than to settle down again with the right woman. Just when he thinks he's found her in Dr. Terri Ross, Julian is confronted by a ghost from the past: Olivia Brown, a woman with whom he had a one-night stand. From the series "The Last Book" © Reinier Gerritsen

Brooks, Gwendolyn. Selected Poems. The classic volume by the distinguished modern poet, and winner of the 1950 Pulitzer Prize, showcases an esteemed artist's technical mastery, her warm humanity, and her compassionate and illuminating response to a complex world. From the series "The Last Book" © Reinier Gerritsen

Didion, Joan. The White Album. Examining key events, figures, and trends of the era through the lens of her own spiritual confusion, Joan Didion helped to define mass culture as we now understand it. Written with a commanding sureness of tone and linguistic precision, The White Album is a central text of American reportage. From the series "The Last Book" © Reinier Gerritsen

Epstein, Mark. Thoughts Without a Thinker. A major contribution to today's discussion of how Eastern spirituality can enhance Western psychology. In it, Epstein argues that the contemplative traditions of the East can be extremely beneficial to patients, not just in helping them recognize their problems but by giving them the strength to heal. From the series "The Last Book" © Reinier Gerritsen

Grass, Gunter. The Tin Drum. After fifty years, The Tin Drum has, if anything, gained in power and relevance. All of Grass’s amazing evocations are still there: Oskar Matzerath, the indomitable drummer, Bebra, the great circus master, all Kashubians, Poles, Germans, and Jews—waiting to be discovered. From the series "The Last Book" © Reinier Gerritsen

Hunt, David. The Magician's Tale. As eerie as a midnight walk in the fog. Hunt starts the fog machine by introducing us to the bleak world that a San Francisco photographer named Kay Farrow sees with the starkness of a reverse negative. It shows us light and dark, truth and deception, even good and evil, in ways we never imagined. From the series "The Last Book" © Reinier Gerritsen

Larsson, Stieg. The Girl Who Played With Fire. The second volume in the Millennium Trilogy, and an international publishing sensation, it combines murder mystery, family saga, love story, and financial intrigue into one satisfyingly complex and entertainingly atmospheric novel. From the series "The Last Book" © Reinier Gerritsen

Murakami, Haruki. 1Q84. The year is 1984 and the city is Tokyo. A young woman named Aomame follows a taxi driver’s enigmatic suggestion and begins to notice puzzling discrepancies in the world around her. She has entered, she realizes, a parallel existence, which she calls 1Q84. A love story, a mystery, a fantasy, a novel of self-discovery. From the series "The Last Book" © Reinier Gerritsen

Rand, Ayn. Anthem. A dystopian fiction novella. In some unspecified future, mankind has entered another dark age characterized by irrationality, collectivism, and socialistic thinking and economics. Technological advancement is now carefully planned (when it is allowed to occur at all) and the concept of individuality has been eliminated. From the series "The Last Book" © Reinier Gerritsen

Renault, Mary. The Charioteer. After enduring an injury at Dunkirk during World War II, Laurie Odell is sent to a rural veterans’ hospital in England to convalesce. There he befriends the young, bright Andrew, a conscientious objector serving as an orderly. The book is a bold, unapologetic portrayal of male homosexuality during World War II. From the series "The Last Book" © Reinier Gerritsen

Rushdie, Salman. The Satanic Verses. Set in a modern world filled with both mayhem and miracles, the story begins with a bang: the terrorist bombing of a London-bound jet in midflight. Two Indian actors of opposing sensibilities fall to earth, transformed into living symbols of what is angelic and evil. A key work of our times. From the series "The Last Book" © Reinier Gerritsen

Thompson, Hunter S. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. The best chronicle of drug-soaked, addle-brained, rollicking good times ever committed to the printed page. It is also the tale of a long weekend road trip that has gone down in the annals of American pop culture as one of the strangest journeys ever undertaken. From the series "The Last Book" © Reinier Gerritsen

Vonnegut, Kurt. Bluebeard. Broad humor and bitter irony collide in this fictional autobiography of Rabo Karabekian, who, at age seventy-one, wants to be left alone on his Long Island estate with the secret he has locked inside his potato barn. But then a voluptuous young widow badgers Rabo into telling his life story. From the series "The Last Book" © Reinier Gerritsen

Wolff, Tobias. The Barracks Thief. The story of three young paratroopers waiting to be shipped out to Vietnam. Brought together one sweltering afternoon to stand guard over an ammunition dump threatened by a forest fire, they discover in each other an unexpected capacity for recklessness and violence. From the series "The Last Book" © Reinier Gerritsen

A book about books. Their covers and people who read them. During my photographic survey in the subways of Beijing, Paris, London and New York, I found that in the past five years, the number of printed books has steadily dwindled while the number of e-books and tablets doubled each year. Continuing this projection to the coming years, I predict that I can photograph the last book in the spring of 2016.

 — Reinier Gerritsen


The world — and the word — is in the process of becoming less and less dependent on paper. Our habits of reading, especially as they occur in the public space, are shifting each day. Photographer Reiner Gerritsen focuses on books and their readers in public buses and subways as a measure of this rapid change.

The work began for Gerritsen as a series of modest observations, and has turned into a series of unexpected, documentary portraits, set against a visual landscape of best sellers, classics, romance novels, detective thrillers, Bibles, biographies, and more. Gerritsen depicts solitary individuals engrossed in the worlds they hold in their hands, and he creates complexly layered narratives informed by the choices of readers and the the body language of fellow passengers lost in their own forms of dealing with crowded isolation.

— LensCulture editors


Editor's note: The project exists against another backdrop as well. Until October 2012, the Dutch government was very financially supportive of photobooks. Recent cuts in grants for photobooks came unexpectedly and is having an enormous impact on the ability of photographers to produce books. Thus, The Last Book is not only referring to the books it pictures. Reinier Gerritsen, like many Dutch photographers, is looking for new ways of funding. Crowd-funding is one option which is being explored.

The Last Book will be published by Aperture in spring 2014 only if the photographer raises a significant amount of money himself. Gerritsen has created an extensive preview on his website. If you like these photographs, please consider helping the artist publish this book so many more people can enjoy the work as well.

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