Boettger's astute visual and psychological analysis of the major Bulgarian artist Nedko Solakov's group of drawings, "99 Fears," illustrates how these anxieties can be read as both wry expressions of private phobias and the social constraints of an Eastern Bloc country.
From apprehensions about plane crashes to writer's block, and fear of disease to the size of one's CV, the hilarious smartness of the drawings describe the general free-floating tremors of modern living. The artist's handwritten captions voicing his sardonic self-examination add bold strokes of self-deprecating humor. These are the fears of an everyman but also those of an artist who grew up under communism, with all its repressions and privations, only to find a new set of apprehensions waiting for him under capitalism. By plumbing the depths of his anxiety, Solakov emerges with his belief in the human spirit intact and his tongue firmly in cheek. If "99 Fears" teaches us anything, it is to throw off the shackles of fear itself, and embrace it as part of life.