Slava Mogutin’s exploration of gay identity in image and text is as exhilarating as it is explicit. After his writings and activism became the subject of public condemnation and continuous criminal investigation in his native Russia, Mogutin was granted political asylum in America, where his emphasis shifted to visual art and photography. In Pictures & Words, typewritten freeverse and hand-scrawled wordplay are met with collaged photographs and crude drawings to create a shockingly subversive and powerful piece. Juxtapositions, anagrams, and acrostics (“teen aged / caged teen,” “smile / slime”) are placed against youthful male wrestlers posing in cheerleaders’ uniforms or transposed over a newspaper business section. Free-associative prose pieces such as “Deep Fisting Lesbians” and “Kim Kardashian’s Open Pussy” combine playful non-sequitur with flagrant transgression. Mixing ironic humor with unflinching horror, this edition is a vital distillation of Mogutin’s activism, aesthetics, and attitude.