This book is published on the occasion of the exhibition The Insurance Man: Kafka in the Penal Colony, held at the Simon Fraser University Gallery from April 25 to June 27, 2009.

Illustrated with 16 pages of colour, the book examines the subject matter of the show — both bureaucracy and penal colonies — and includes short texts by authors who saw the show in person. With texts by Ian Angus, Lee Bacchus, Michael Barnholden, Michael Bourke, Rob Brownie, Willie Brisco, Kathi Diamant, Brian Graham, Mark Jaskela, Bill Jeffries, Tom McGauley, Tom Morris, ryan andrew murphy, carl peters, Kaia Scott, Peyman Vahabzadeh, Jerry Zaslove.

Jerry Zaslove (1934–2021) was a teacher and writer in the fields of comparative literature and the social history of art. His most important work includes the installation and book The Insurance Man: Kafka in the Penal Colony (with Bill Jeffries), the monograph Jeff Wall, 1990 (with Gary Dufour), and numerous essays and articles written over five decades on the place of the university in society, exile and memory, and the city in history. He taught at Simon Fraser University from its opening year in the Departments of English and Humanities and was the founding director of the Institute for the Humanities.

Jerry Zaslove's profile page

Bill Jeffries' profile page