Vladimir's Night' is the chimerical final work by Maxim Komar-Myshkin, one of the most elusive and tragic figures in Israeli-Russian art. Part children's book, part gory political assault and part erotic farce involving elaborately detailed paintings that draw from the most disparate sources, the work is not only Komar-Myshkin's magnum opus, but an instrument of psycho-aesthetic retaliation against Vladimir Putin, whom the artist believed had a personal vendetta against him. Komar-Myshkin committed suicide in 2011, soon after completing the album. 0In her annotations, Rosa Chabanova explores the book's many layers, covering such wide-ranging topics as the financial schemes of Russian oligarchs, medieval literature, political assassinations and the massive immigration wave of Russians to Israel. In so doing, Chabanova unravels the haunting story of Komar-Myshkin and arrives at startling conclusions as to what actually transpired during Komar-Myshkin's final years. Maxim Komar-Myshkin was born in Moscow in 1978. He immigrated to Israel in 2004. There, he founded the Buried Alive group, a circle of artists, writers and filmmakers who vowed in their manifesto to operate as cultural zombies.

Sweet Sweat, the only novel by Belgian artist Justine Frank, is unusual, to say the least—a blend of feminism, pornography, Judaism, and art, written in French in 1931. Its heroine is a Jewish girl named Rachel, born in the South of France, who has an outstanding talent for debauchery and crime. She takes up with the sybaritic Count Urdukas and sets out with him on an odyssey of pleasure and corruption marked by bizarre events in which horror and humor mingle. This comprehensive new edition of Frank's novel includes an essay and an extensive biography by Israeli American writer and artist Roee Rosen and a timeline tracing key moments in Frank's life, providing a definitive analysis of this once-scandalous novel and its historical and cultural contexts. [As he hovered] over the skinny body, his nostrils were filled with the aroma of horror-sweat that poured from Rachel. He was swept by the scent. His breathing became a guttural purr and his eyes glazed over. Oh, shrewd liqueur of tropical fruits! Ah, venomous crème de cassis! Hurrah, distilled, tyrannical sweetness, tainted neither by a salty tint nor sour hint! Never had the Count been caught by such a fire as was ignited by this sweetness... a carnivorous perfume, as seismic as epilepsy... A smut potion worthy of the sacred nostrils of the Pope! —Justine Frank, Sweet Sweat, 1931 Roee Rosen's paintings, films, and writings have become known for their historical and theological consciousness, novelistic imagination, and psychological ambition. His work addresses the representation of history, the political economy of memory, and the politics of identity, often exploring the tension between trauma, horror, humor, and truth. Rosen was born in Rehovot, Israel, in 1963, and received degrees in visual art from the School of Visual Arts and Hunter College, both in New York. He now lives in Israel, where he teaches art and art history at Bezalel Academy of Art and at Beit Berl College. In 1997 Rosen's controversial exhibition “Live and Die as Eva Braun” at The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, was aggressively attacked by Israeli politicians. It won critical praise, however, for its new approach to the representation of the memory of the Holocaust. Rosen's projects include the exhibition “Justine Frank (1900–1943): A Retrospective” (2009) and the films Two Women and a Man (2005) and The Confessions of Roee Rosen (2008). He has authored the books A Different Face (Shva, 2000), Lucy (Shadurian, 2000), Sweet Sweat (Babel, 2001), and Ziona™ (Keter, 2007). Copublished with Extra City

"Pink labor on golden streets: queer art practices is particularly concerned with combining, juxtaposing, or playing off various artistic strategies where form and politics intervene. Two artistic attitudes, often perceived as divergent, are described here: the choice of form attributed to political issues versus political stances dictating the question of form. This book sheds light on contradictory standpoints of queer art practices, conceptions of the body, and ideas of 'queer abstraction, ' a term coined by Jack Judith Halberstam that raises questions to do with (visual) representations in the context of gender, sexuality, and desire"--Page [4] of cover.

Internationally recognized Israeli-American writer, filmmaker and artist Roee Rosen (b. 1963) juxtaposes text and image, history and its revision in the publication of her artist book The Blind Merchant (198991). Produced at a moment when the idea of originality was being questioned, this compelling artist book shows that classic stories are open for new angles of approach that reflect the time of their reading. Composed of three elements: the complete text of Shakespeares The Merchant of Venice; a parasitical text by Rosen from the perspective of Shylock running alongside the play; and 145 pen-and-ink drawings presenting Rosens approach to the dramas staging and casting of characters. The artist uses the blind drawing technique to depict Shylock, the blinded merchant in this dramatic retelling of the Shakespearian tragedy. Blind Merchant accompanies a solo exhibition at Tel Aviv Museum of Art (2016) plus a foreword by Joshua Simon. Past Sternberg publications include the cult classic Justin Frank: Sweet Sweat (2009) and Maxim Komar-Myshkin: Vladimirs Night (2014).