The Roadmap of Painting

This well-designed paperback features work by three of China's most sought-after contemporary painters: Li Dafang, who paints disturbing scenes of decay; Shi Xinning, who imagines a nuclear plume over Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty and Chairman Mao shaking hands with Elvis Presley; and Zhang Xiaotao, who imbues used condoms, dead rats and rotting strawberries with an upbeat Pop sensibility.

The artists, all in their mid-thirties, share a semi-apocalyptic, ironic point of view that illuminates the most frightening aspects of globalization.

According to essayist Shu Yang, the artists "have made their works into a mirror that reflects contemporary life, and the longer you stare into this mirror, the more you see of the world it reflects."