Bento's Sketchbook

by Berger, John

Drawing & drawings

Published 25/03/2025 by Verso Books in the United Kingdom.

Paperback | 176 pages, 64 hand-drawn illustrations

The seventeenth-century philosopher Baruch Spinoza (a.k.a. Bento) spent the most intense years of his short life writing. He also carried with him a sketchbook. After his sudden death, his friends rescued letters, manuscripts, notes-but no drawings.

For years, without knowing what its pages might hold, John Berger has imagined finding Bento's sketchbook, wanting to see the drawings alongside his surviving words. When one day a friend gave him a beautiful virgin sketchbook, Berger said, 'This is Bento's!' and he began to draw, taking inspiration from the philosopher's vision.

In this beautifully illustrated book, Berger uses the imaginative space opened up in this experiment to explore politics, storytelling, Spinoza's life and times, and the process of drawing itself.