The original composition of the book consists of memories of childhood and youth, meetings with people who left a bright mark on the history of Russian culture, publications from the author's archive, as well as curatorial notes and selected articles from different years. "In his book, Vladimir Perts went beyond the traditional "selected", although even this would be enough to read it. He came up with an unusual and very expressive type of publication. Scientific articles and publications here are not just side by side with autobiographical inclusions, documents from the personal archive, memories of meetings with artists, artists, writers, interviews, but are literally "layered" with them. As a result, we have not only the result of the research work, but also its process. We see that knowledge is obtained in personal communication, that it is possible to be involved in the emergence of new sources (the writing of many memories is initiated by the author and is an exclusive material). This book has two overlapping and equally interesting subjects — the history of art and the history of the art critic who writes it. Old texts are often provided with today's comments, which, on the one hand, makes an indissoluble connection of times in art, and on the other, allows us to trace the evolution of the author's views in their constancy and variability." Irina Karasik, Doctor in Science of the Arts