When I visit Johannesburg from Gaborone I drive a route through Swartruggens, where there is a junk shop on the main road, situated adjacent to premises that display an array of coffins in the windows. On the way back from Joburg I usually stop there to stretch my legs before the final push towards Zeerust and home. Most of the stuff in stock is a jumble of smelly secondhand clothing, ugly furniture, broken and discarded household items and books collected from what I presume are dead peoples’ houses. But over the years I have found some treasures, old wooden picture frames, a pair of 1970s platform boots in black faux patent leather, a collection of wooden coca cola crates. On one particular journey home, after I had been in Johannesburg working out of the Bag factory, I stopped in Swartruggens to sort through the junk and found the Profit and Discount book.

During my stay in Joburg I drove from Parktown to Fordsburg every day, passing by the biblical figure of a young beggar boy on the corner by Braamfontein station. Every day I saw the rubbish collectors pushing their wagons filled with painstakingly sorted waste, up and down roads. In restaurants I saw anxiety in peoples’ eyes. Very much inspired by William Kentridge I had an idea that might sum up this Joburg experience. I wanted to turn a useless and abandoned book into a statement about human resilience and resourcefulness. The thing that made this little book come alive in my hands was an original letter to its owner, left folded into its leaves, begging for help with an outstanding debt on a donkey.

I took the book apart by removing all the pages and carefully taping them back together into a long concertina. When re inserted into the original cover the pages still fit snugly, but when removed, they opened out to make a single art work. I redrew the everyday sketches that I had made of the people I had seen on the streets and in restaurants in Joburg onto the pages of the book and I kept the original letter in its envelope, taped into the inside back cover.

In collaboration with Master printer Leshoka Joe Legate.