Pile of bricks
By: Catherine Cartwright
Contributors: Bruck, Julie, 1957- poet; Al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition; Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Artists' Books Collection (Columbia University. Rare Book and Manuscript Library)
Publisher: [publisher not identified]
Published: 2011
Place of publication: Exeter, England?]
Language: eng
Subjects: Violence; Pictorial works; Booksellers and bookselling; Bombings; Iraq War, 2003-2011; Protest movements; Books and reading in art; Intellectual life; Social conditions; Censorship; Terrorism in art; In art; War and civilization; Vehicle bombs; Visual literature; Specimens; Artists' books; Freedom of expression; Human rights in art; Al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition
Description: This collection supports and promotes awareness to the important mission and framework of the Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Coalition's focus on the lasting power of the written word and the arts in support of the free expression of ideas, the preservation of shared cultural spaces, and the importance of responding to attacks, both overt and subtle, on artists, writers, and academics working under oppressive regimes or in zones of conflict, despite the destruction of that literary/cultural content.

"'Pile of bricks' is directly inspired by Julie Bruck's poem 'March 9, 2007 Al-Mutanabbi Street, Baghdad.' I pared down Julie Bruck's poem to the words that describe the objects found by the man in the poem who searches for his teenage son in the bombed devastation of Al Mutanabbi Street. The words of the objects; 'pink plastic flower, a pair of glasses, and a book with crisp, white pages' were deeply moving to me and became etched on my mind. I aimed to create a book that could be handled and played with, while the words were thought about, and in a form that would reflect on the impact of the bombing"--The Book Arts at the Centre for Fine Print Research, UK website.

"I am printmaker-artist whose practice encompasses notions of freedom and containment alongside an investigation of human rights. My work enables me to learn about, digest and consider current issues of human rights while exploring the seemingly endless possibilities to the medium of printmaking. I work across printmaking choosing the methods most appropriate to the work in progress. This may be monotype, drypoint, collagraph, screenprinting, a combination of these and encompassing text, stitch, and collage. I enjoy collaboration across art form and on the past two years I have created work with artists in performance art and film (Politics in Print 2009), dance (Collective Perspectives 2011), and animation. I am a director, tutor, education coordinator for Double Elephant Print Workshop, Exeter, UK. I am active within Exeter's international community, and I am currently supporting the set up of the Centre for Human Rights and Social Equality (Exeter-based). I am organising a 'Reading-Performance' of 'The Story of Al Mutanabbi Street' to mark the 5 years since the bombing. It will take place on 5-3-2012 at Double Elephant Print Workshop, turning the workshop and its printing accompaniments into a performance space that plays its role in the creation of the printed word and image"--Artist's statement from the Book Arts at the Centre for Fine Print Research, UK website.
Notes: Medium: The bricks are screenprinted MDF blocks that can be handled, built up and knocked down, for example, as a house of cards, or layered as a pile of bricks. The paper-version of the book can be handled or hung. The feet movements on the back-side of these brick prints suggest the street's living, daily activity and contrasts with the deadened bombed-out pile of bricks. Consists of 1 MDF version/ two paper versions; contains 7 'bricks' measuring 28 x 16 cm.

On March 5th, 2007, a car bomb exploded on al-Mutanabbi Street in Baghdad. Al-Mutanabbi Street is located in a mixed Shia-Sunni area. More than 30 people were killed and more than 100 wounded. Al-Mutanabbi Street, the historic center of Baghdad bookselling, holds bookstores and outdoor bookstalls, cafes, stationery shops, and even tea and tobacco shops. It has been the longstanding heart and soul of the Baghdad literary and intellectual community for centuries. In response to the attack, a San Francisco poet and bookseller, Beau Beausoleil, rallied a community of international artists and writers to produce a collection of letterpress-printed broadsides (poster-like works on paper), artists' books (unique works of art in book form), and an anthology of writing, all focused on expressing solidarity with Iraqi booksellers, writers and readers. The coalition of contributing artists calls itself Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Coalition.

Gift; Beau Beausoleil; 2019-2020.