At the center of the publication are people’s lives: families and friends on the beaches of Odessa who metaphorically meet with faces of the Roma communities on the Hungarian border, the churchgoers who interchange with nightclubbers of Kyiv, and the portraits of civilians who converge with those of soldiers living on the frontline in Eastern Ukraine. Published by Nazraeli Press and edited by David Campany, this book brings together eighty images featuring Neville’s long-term documentation of Ukraine’s everyday life before the current war, short stories about the conflict written by Ukrainian novelist Lyuba Yakimchuk, and research from the Centre of Eastern European Studies in Berlin. Released on the brink of the recent Russian invasion in Ukraine, Neville’s project calls on the international community to urgently support Ukraine. The publication Stop Tanks With Books by British artist Mark Neville can be considered one of those small gestures that will – hopefully – have a big impact in the long run. Well, that’s when art succeeds in effecting a real change. Even with small gestures, and even towards a few people, art manages to instill doubts and create previously unimaginable connections. Yet, art has always been the enemy of war as it pulls back the fear to imagine a different world. When bombs ravage city skylines, buildings crumble, and going out into the sunlight means risking one’s neck, you might rightly wonder if art can really change anything.
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