Whether Laura Buxton's Balkan series is great art or simply tells a great story must be left to the critics. Of the paintings' documentary importance there can be no doubt. Here is art about a great tragedy of our age, occurring after the Cold War, in peacetime, and not in the so-called Third World but in the heart of Europe. Perhaps this book will awaken us to the plight of people who are very much like ourselves and who are literally our neighbors, being no more than twelve hours away by air. Laura's paintings very graphically show the cost of war and its futility. The Balkan wars have destroyed objects of inestimable value, to no discernable gain. - Foreword.