This work sets out to draw us into the storied world of pictures and paintings. Taking a handful of images, the author explores how each one attempts to tell a story that we, the viewer, must decipher or invent: from the secret canvases of the Renaissance artist to Picasso's "Weeping Woman". The author does not attempt to devise a systematic method for reading pictures such as those proposed by great art historians, he seeks to reclaim for common viewers the right to "read" images.

The common viewer : the image as story --
Joan Mitchell : the image as absence --
Robert Campin : the image as riddle --
Tina Modotti : the image as witness --
Lavinia Fontana : the image as understanding --
Marianna Gartner : the image as nightmare --
Philoxenus : the image as reflection --
Pablo Picasso : the image as violence --
Aleijadinho : the image as subversion --
C.-N. Ledoux : the image as philosophy --
Peter Eisenman : the image as memory --
Caravaggio : the image as theatre.