International and of the Academy of Zaum. Her poems and visual works were reproduced in (a Russian language literary almanac published annually in New York) and . Her essays and articles featured in leading Russian journals, including . She was the editor-compiler of a collection of articles entitled "Женщина и визуальные знаки" ("Woman and visual signs") which appeared in 2000. During the final years of the twentieth century, hers became an increasingly international presence in the contemporary arts world, featuring in exhibitions not just in Russia, but also in Britain, Germany, Hungary and Sweden. Life turned bitter early in 2003. In January an exhibition opened in Moscow under the challenging title . The focus of the exhibition was on the church. A few days after it opened, on 18 January, the exhibition was trashed by six people purporting to represent Christian Orthodox believers. The works of the 40 exhibitors were destroyed with paint. A statement appeared on the wall: "May you be damned". Two of the vandals, Lyukshin and Zyakin, were arrested at the scene and a criminal trial took place. What appalled many in Russia and, as news of the trial spread, many international observers, was the fact that the authorities proceeded not against the vandals but against the exhibition organisers, Yuri Samodurov and Ludmila Vasilovskaya. A third person was on trial, one of the more high-profile exhibitors, Anna Alchuk Mikhalchuk. (On 23 August 2003 a Moscow court determined that Lyukshin and Zyakin had no case to answer.) The lengthy trial and the events surrounding it hit Alchuk badly. Her husband was able to chronicle their experiences. Overnight their circle of friends halved in size. They were avoided. Alchuk found herself identified in the Russian press not as an adventurous artist and lyric poet but as a political figurehead of opposition. There was no protection offered from the constant anonymous threats, many of which were couched in nationalist and anti-semitic terms. The experience of social isolation and the growing belief that if the authorities said she was guilty of something then she must be, tore away at her self-image. It was the start of a long period of destabilisation. (The outcome of the trial was that Samodurov and Vasilovskaya were found guilty of inciting religious and ethic hostility under Article 282 of the Criminal Code. Each was fined one thousand rubles. Alchuk was found "not guilty" and acquitted.) Constant