The critic must play both Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes, riffling actively through clues as well as sitting back and dreaming out the action, while deciphering the motives behind that crime of passion which is the artwork. I am about to perform this dual role, in reflecting on Anju Dodiya’s pictorial appropriations in the fifteen-year period during which her paintings have possessed — and been possessed by the courtesans and actors of ukiyo-e.

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