Critical reader published within the framework of the three-part project Citizens and Subjects, curated by FORMER WEST curator Maria Hlavajova for the Dutch Pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennale. The project in the Pavilion included new works and an architectural intervention by artist Aernout Mik (the reader contains some images relating to the works). The diverse texts in the reader attempt to think about the current condition of life in the so-called West, framed as it is by fear, the threat of terrorist and other violence, pressures from globalization, migration, etc. by looking at the Netherlands as an ‘example’ that can reveal conditions pervasive in Western Europe today. See in particular texts by the editors, Sven Lütticken (on the image wars), and Hlavajova in conversation with artist Lawrence Weiner.