Introduction: Why "What Is Research in the Visual Arts?: Obsession, Archive, Encounter"?
Part 1. Encounters and Obsessions
What Is Research in Art History, Anyway?
Seeing Ghosts: The Turn of the Screw and Art History
Dead Stock: The Researcher as Collector of Failed Goods
The Work of Research: Remembering, Repeating, and Working-Through
Archival Obsessions and Obsessive Archives
Our Monstrous Double: The Dream of Research in "Outsider Art History"
Part 2. The World and the Archive
Factory of Facts: Research as Obsession with the Scent of History
The Artwork, the Archive, and the Living Moment
Cut the Bean: Curiosity and Research in the Pages of Cabinet Magazine
The World Archive and Universal Research
Research Practice: New Words on Cold Cases