Part 1: Hiwa K's selectionFrancesca Recchia, 'Twist and Don't Shout: A conversation between Hiwa K, Aneta Szylak and Francesca Recchia' (2012)Aneta Szy¿ak, 'Curating Context' (2013)Irit Rogoff, 'Smuggling: An Embodied Criticality' (2006)Hito Steyerl, 'Art as Occupation: Claims for an Autonomy of Life' (2011)Part 2: Aneta Szy¿ak's selectionMichel de Certeau, 'General Introduction to The Practice of Every Day Life' (1980)Mikhail Bakhtin, 'Art and Answerability' (1919)Boris Buden, 'The Pit of Babel or: The Society that Mistook Culture for Politics' (2005)Homi K. Bhabha, 'Articulating the Archaic' (1994)The impetus for the launch of Ruya Notebooks was twofold. Firstly, it is the Ruya Foundation's mission to bridge the gap between the conflict-ridden regions of the Middle East, particularly Iraq, and the rest of the world. Despite greater access to information brought about by the Internet and other technological advancements, access to good educational art texts in the Middle East is still restricted by socio-economic factors, one of the most limiting being the ability to speak a Western European language. Secondly, access to scholarship is generally constricted in the region, inhibiting the ability of creative communities to think freely and without censorship. Combating these issues requires a host of developments, including access to good schools and teachers, and well researched and updated curriculums and methodologies. Ruya Notebooks aims to contribute in some way to this effort.A number of publishers and writers generously waived reproduction fees to enable Ruya Notebooks to launch. Future participants will include the curators Marie Muracciole, Hans Ulrich Obrist and Philippe Van Cauteren and the artists Kader Attia, William Kentridge, and Fouad El Khoury. Selected texts will include pieces by Etel Adnan, Marcel Broodthaers, Hans Haacke, Lucy Lippard, Agnes Martin, Linda Nochlin and Gayatri Spivak among others. Details of the third title for 2018 will be announced in the spring.