Ed. Paul Sloman
Black Dog Publishing

The Middle East is often stereotyped and misunderstood in the Western mind-set. This book, however, offers a positive insight into the greatly under-debated Middle Eastern contemporary art scene. The collection of art from a broad range of artists, confronts the Western misinterpretations of the region, offering a catalogue of the broad cultural diversity that is occurring in the Middle East.

The art featured ranges from video and performance by Lida Abul to the “painted photographs” of Osama Esid and the beautiful but troubling text-overlaid images by Shirin Neshat. It is this gathering of various art forms that defies boundaries and culminates in a collage of artistic expression, which in turn reflects the nature of the region itself.

There is also a collection of key essays: Nat Muller explores the ideas of contemporary artistic practice in the Middle East, Suzanne Cotter and TJ Demos focus on the artistic output from Palestine and Lebanon and Lindsey Moore discusses the intriguing topic of women artists in the region.

Nancy Porter