This alternative study of archive and photography brings many types of image assemblages into view, always in relation to the regulated systems operating within the institutional milieu. The archive catalogue is presented as a critical tool for mapping image time, and the language of image description is seen as having a life, a worth and an aesthetic value of its own. Functioning at the intersection of text and image, the book combines media culture, archival techniques, and contemporary discourse on art and conceptual writing.

Jane Birkin is an artist, designer and scholar. She is a visiting lecturer and research assistant at Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton, and she works on exhibitions in the University's Special Collections Division. The administration system of the archive is the primary locus of Birkin's writing and practice.