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This book is about the destruction of art, both in terms of objects that have been destroyed - lost in fires, floods or vandalism - and the general concept of art operating through object and form. Through re-examinations of such events as the Momart warehouse fire in 2004 and the activities of art thief Stéphane Breitwieser, the book proposes an idea of solvent form hinging on the dual meaning in the wordssolvent and solvency, whereby art, while attempting to make secure or fixed, simultaneously undoes and destroys through its inception. Ultimately, the book questions what is it that may be perceived in the destruction of art and how we understand it, and further how it might be linked to a more general failure.This book is about the destruction of art, both in terms of objects that have been destroyed - lost in fires, floods or vandalism - and the general concept of art operating through object and form. Through re-examinations of such events as the Momart warehouse fire in 2004 and the activities of art thief Stéphane Breitwieser, the book proposes an idea of solvent form hinging on the dual meaning in the wordssolvent and solvency, whereby art, while attempting to make secure or fixed, simultaneously undoes and destroys through its inception. Ultimately, the book questions what is it that may be perceived in the destruction of art and how we understand it, and further how it might be linked to a more general failure.

The artist Albert Rappaport was born in Anykščiai in 1898. In 1911, the family emigrated to New York. Rappaport became an American citizen in 1925 and began to travel widely. He studied fine art in New York, Paris, Dresden and Munich. He visited South America, Africa and traveled extensively through Europe (1925–1927, 1933, 1937–1939), returning to the United States now and again. The artist participated in several dozen exhibitions. He showed his work in Paris, Rome, Florence, Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca, Copenhagen, Mexico City, Havana, New York, Calgary and Montreal, in addition to his solo exhibitions in 1937 in Warsaw and Vilnius, and in Kaunas, Riga and Tallinn in 1938. After Rappaport’s death, in March 17, 1969 in Montreal, his collection of artworks disappeared and has thus far not been found. To date, two of his painted portraits are known to exist – one belongs to the private collection of Jonathan C. Rappaport, another is on display at the Jewish Public Library in Montreal.

To write about works that cannot be sensually perceived involves considerable strain. Absent the object, art historians must stretch their methods to, or even past, the breaking point. This concise volume addresses the problems inherent in studying medieval works of art, artifacts, and monuments that have disappeared, have been destroyed, or perhaps never existed in the first place. The contributors to this volume are confronted with the full expanse of what they cannot see, handle, or know. Connecting object histories, the anthropology of images, and historiography, they seek to understand how people have made sense of the past by examining objects, images, and architectural and urban spaces. Intersecting these approaches is a deep current of reflection upon the theorization of historical analysis and the ways in which the past is inscribed into layers of evidence that are only ever revealed in the historian's present tense. Highly original and theoretically sophisticated, this volume will stimulate debate among art historians about the critical practices used to confront the formative presence of destruction, loss, obscurity, and existential uncertainty within the history of art and the study of historical material and visual cultures. In addition to the editors, the contributors to this volume are Michele Bacci, Claudia Brittenham, Sonja Drimmer, Jaś Elsner, Peter Geimer, Danielle B. Joyner, Kristopher W. Kersey, Lena Liepe, Meekyung MacMurdie, and Michelle McCoy.

Today, the word ‘craft’ is linked to a vast array of items, from handmade objects to microbreweries. The term ‘artisanal’ is so overused that it can strain our credulity. But this also reveals that the value of craft remains compelling in modern life. In this cogently argued book, Ezra Shales explores some of the key questions about craft: who makes it, what we mean when we think about a craft object and how that shapes our understanding of what craft is. Along the way, he continually upends our definitions and typical expectations of what we think is handcrafted or authentic. Shales’s discussion ranges widely across people and objects: from potter Karen Karnes to weaver Jack Lenor Larsen, glass sculptor Dale Chihuly to Native American basket-maker Julia Parker, as well as younger makers such as Sopheap Pich and Maarten Baas, and to the porcelain and cast-iron sanitary ware produced by the Kohler Company, the pottery made in Stoke on Trent and the people in Asia today who weave beautiful things for IKEA. Engaging, pertinent and direct, the book ultimately encourages us to feel the shape of craft in our own lives.

Background In resource-limited settings, many HIV-infected patients are lost to follow-up (LTF) before starting ART; risk factors among those not eligible for ART at enrollment into care are not well described. Methods We examined data from 4,278 adults (3,613 women, 665 men) enrolled in HIV care through March 2007 in the MTCT-Plus Initiative with a CD4 count ≥200 cells/mm 3 and WHO stage ≤ 2 at enrollment. Patients were considered LTF if > 12 months elapsed since their last clinic visit. Gender-specific Cox regression models were used to assess LTF risk factors. Results The proportion LTF was 8.2 % at 12 months following enrollment, and was higher among women (8.4 %) than men (7.1 %). Among women, a higher risk of LTF was associated with younger age (adjusted hazard ratio [AHR] 15–19/30+ : 2.8, 95 % CI:2.1-3.6; AHR 20–24/30+ :1.9, 95 % CI:1.7-2.2), higher baseline CD4 count (AHR 350–499/200–349 :1.5; 95 % CI:1.0-2.1; AHR 500+/200–349 :1.5; 95 % CI:1.0-2.0), and being pregnant at the last clinic visit (AHR:1.9, 95 % CI:1.4-2.5). Factors associated with a lower risk of LTF included, employment outside the home (AHR:0.73, 95 % CI:0.59-0.90), co-enrollment of a family/household member (AHR:0.40, 95 % CI:0.26-0.61), and living in a household with ≥4 people (AHR:0.74, 95 % CI:0.64-0.85). Among men, younger age (AHR 15–19/30+ : 2.1, 95 % CI:1.2-3.5 and AHR 30–34/35+ :1.5, 95 % CI:1.0-2.4) had a higher risk of LTF. Electricity in the home (AHR:0.61, 95 % CI:0.41-0.91) and living in a household with ≥4 people (AHR:0.58, 95 % CI:0.39-0.85) had a lower risk of LTF. Conclusions Socio-economic status and social support may be important determinants of retention in patients not yet eligible for ART. Among women of child-bearing age, strategies around sustaining HIV care during and after pregnancy require attention.

The fifth-century grammarian-philosopher Bhartṛhari has long attracted scholarly attention, and deservedly so: his magnum opus, the Vākyapadīya, had a profound impact on later Indian schools of thought, Brahmanical as well as Buddhist. The Vākyapadīya is not, however, the only grammatical and/or philosophical work ascribed to Bhartṛhari in addition to a commentary on Patañjali's Mahābhāṣya: according to several sources dating back at least to the tenth century, the same author also composed a Śabdadhātusamīkṣā or Ṣaḍdhātusamīkṣāi, which, unfortunately, has not come down to us, and which is still shrouded in mystery, as its main topic, and even title and attribution, are considered uncertain to date. The goal of this article is to examine the available fragments and testimonies and to establish on their basis that the work, the original title of which must have been the Ṣaḍdhātusamīkṣā, endeavored to show that the whole phenomenal world is made of six elements (earth, fire, water, air, ether, and consciousness) while ultimately defending a nondualistic point of view. Verses quoted by later authors as belonging to the Ṣaḍdhātusamīkṣā are gathered and translated in an appendix to the article.