This richly illustrated catalogue gathers work from Victor Man’s solo exhibition at Ikon, which then travelled to the Centre international d’art et du paysage de l’ île de Vassivière in France.

Comprising new paintings and sculptures, the book opens a richly evocative world; dark in both palette and imagery, with suggestions of voyeurism and innuendo. Man’s work signifies an alternative world beyond familiar experience. This is enhanced by the artist’s technique of using a ‘black’ mirror, a device which distances the act of visualisation for both himself and the viewer.

The images and objects used by the artist are captured and recycled from a wide range of sources, found near his studio and home, then juxtaposed in a representation of his changing world and the previous generations of Romania.

The transformation occurring within Eastern Europe, reflected in the re-contextualised diversity of Man’s work, is obliquely examined, ensuring that a history is not lost but reconstituted with new meaning.