A Place in the Books

Niv Fridman

It is no secret that history is written by a small group of powerful individuals, predominantly homosexual men. In this project, which combines historical reality and imagination, the artist has planted queer self-portraits in old books from different eras, opening windows into narratives from the realms of Jewish and Hebrew thought, religion, and science. The images are embedded in the books using various techniques, including digital processing. The result blurs the line between past and present until the two become virtually indistinguishable. By embedding these queer motifs into archival documents, the artist tried to find a place for himself in Israel’s present reality, which still bears a strong connection to its history.