In the art history of the second half of the 20th century, the Central and Eastern European region holds a hybrid status as an extensive border territory between the "West"—capitalist Europe, where the movement from neo-avant-garde to postmodernism was underway at the time—and the USSR, where there was an uneven struggle between the archaizing socialist realism and the independent art developing in isolation. This border status explains both the lack of attention to the art of the "Eastern Bloc" countries and its diversity, shaped by a constant dialogue with the West and the USSR, giving rise to many distinct phenomena, some of which remained in the shadows, while others developed during the post-Perestroika period. The book by Ruben and Maya Fuchs is one of the first attempts to summarize this experience. It introduces a large body of archival material and reviews diverse artistic trends in East Germany, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, the former Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia, constructing an art history of the region without which it is impossible to evaluate the current innovative art of these countries.