New Edition of ‘Cockroach Sister, Where Are You Going?’ and Morteza’s Picture Book Exhibition
The folk tale “Cockroach Sister, Where Are You Going?”, which has been loved in Iran, has been republished after 20 years by Yamayamasha, a new picture book publisher in Nagano, with a beautiful and elegant binding. An exhibition commemorating the publication of the new edition will be held at Calo Bookshop & Cafe, the same venue that hosted Morteza Zahedi’s original art exhibition when the Japanese version was first published in 2006.
“I am more beautiful than a rose, and loved by everyone.”
The cute illustrations that enhance the story of the positive Cockroach Sister are filled with the challenges of illustrator Morteza, who was still in his 20s at the time. The original drawings from the new edition of “Cockroach Sister, Where Are You Going?” will be introduced through panel displays. Picture books and works previously created by Morteza will also be exhibited. Along with original merchandise, the exhibition offers a chance to enjoy the charm of the works and the world of Iranian picture books from multiple perspectives.
Event Details
- Period: 2026/9/29 (Tue) – 10/24 (Sat)
- Closed: Sundays, Mondays *Special opening until 18:00 on 10/12 (Mon/Holiday)
- Hours: 12:00 – 19:00 *Saturdays until 18:00, final day 10/24 (Sat) until 17:00
- Location: Calo Bookshop & Cafe (Wakasa Bldg 5F, 1-8-24 Edobori, Nishi-ku, Osaka City)
- Fee: Free admission
- Inquiries: https://www.calobookshop.com/contact/
- Website: https://www.calobookshop.com/gallery/2026/gokiburinesan2026/
Morteza Zahedi is an Iranian visual artist and photographer based in Tehran. He works mainly in photography and the artist’s book. His pictures tend to be oblique: an object on a table, a figure caught at the edge of the frame, a street seen through a half-covered window. In sequence, they form a longer account of public space and the unspoken rules that govern it.
He is best known internationally for Cockroach Sister, Where Are You Going?, a photobook whose title borrows a phrase commonly directed at women on the streets of Iran. The book examines how women move through spaces that are not fully theirs. Instead of documenting harassment directly, it alternates photographs, notes, and brief observations, letting the viewer notice the small gestures and cautious positions that such spaces require. The work is less a record of abuse than an inquiry into visibility: who is seen, who looks away, and who is expected to leave.
Zahedi’s approach treats the artist’s book as a longer form in its own right rather than a container for individual images. The new edition of Cockroach Sister, Where Are You Going?, on display at the 2026 Osaka exhibition, is a chance to study the book as a physical object and to follow its structure from page to page. It returns throughout to a central question—where a woman is allowed to go—but does not resolve it.
