In this singular, brilliant collection, art critic David Mann delivers thirteen interlinked stories inspired by the South African art world. From high-end galleries to crumbling museums, art fairs and archives to one-room studios, Mann's storiesconsider the experience of having one's life changed, in ways both profound and banal, through novel encounters with art and performance. But they also zero in on the homes, private lives, and emotional interiorities of the creatives who inhabit these sacred places. Delving into the lives of the artists, critics, and art lovers that characterize the country's contemporary art and performance space, Once Removed reveals the precarity and importance of creative work in post-apartheid South Africa and beyond.