Freyd ["Joy"], an illustrated monthly for children. 2nd year, issue no. 8. Kiev: Kultur Lige, July 1923. Cover designed by Mark Epstein; in-text illustrations by Epstein.
Eighth issue of the children's monthly "Freyd" (published between the years 1922-1925). The issue features articles on various subjects, stories and poems, and is accompanied by pictures and illustrations. On p. 24, a tipped-in picture from an exhibition held in memory of the Yiddish poet Asher Schwarzman in the children's colony of Malakhovka, located in the outskirts of Moscow (a Yiddish-Soviet orphanage that operated during the years 1919-1938; among the educators working in the institution were Mark Chagall, Der Nister, Joel Engel, and others). The issue features a number of illustrations by Mark Epstein, who also designed the cover.

35, [1] pp., 27.5 cm. Good condition. Browning; brittle paper. Closed and open tears to edges (not affecting text). Pencil inscriptions. Tears to lengh of spine (front and back cover partially detached). 

Mark Epshtein (1897-1949), born in Bobruisk, was a graphic designer, painter, sculptor and set designer. He was educated in a traditional cheder, and later studied at the Kiev Art Institute and (in 1918) under artist Alexandra Ekster. That same year he exhibited his work in an exhibition dedicated to Jewish artists and took part in founding the art department within the Kultur Lige. His style was largely influenced by modernist Jewish authors and poets active in the same artistic circles as himself in Kiev, such as Der Nister (Pinchas Kahanovich), David Bergelson and Yekhezkl Dobrushin. Epshtein remained active in Kiev even after the Ukraine SSR was established and the Kultur Lige was taken over by the communist authorities, although most of his fellow artists opted to leave town. Between 1923 and 1931 Epshtein headed the Kiev Jewish School of Industrial Art (the former Kultur Lige art department, nationalized by the communist government), and designed stage sets and costumes for theaters in Kiev and Kharkiv.
In 1932, after the school as well as other remaining Kultur Lige institutions were shut down, he had to leave Kiev for Moscow. No work of his was exhibited during his later years.