Bagdad reads *fragments
By: Penny Peckham
Contributors: Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Artists' Books Collection (Columbia University. Rare Book and Manuscript Library); Al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition
Publisher: [Penny Peckham]
Published: 2012
Place of publication: [Melbourne, Australia]
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; History; Artists' books
Other titles: Baghdad reads *fragments
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.

"'Bagdad reads *fragments' is a collection of linocut printed and typewritten text fragments taken from the history of Baghdad as a centre of learning, from Iraqi poetry and descriptions of this project, An Inventory of Al-Mutanabbi Street. The words are printed on very light, somewhat transparent paper, suggesting the fragility of the situation for the booksellers of al-Mutanabbi Street. The red of the rather messy pastepaper cover also makes reference to the destruction of the bombings"--Artist's statement from the Centre for Fine Print Research, UK website.

"With a background in art history & a particular interest in women artists, much of my work relates to art by or about women & their activities. I am also interested in the objects that have shaped us as women, particularly the power of quite primitive doll-forms"--Umbrella Studio Contemporary Arts website (viewed July 8, 2015).
Notes: Printed in an edition of 4.

Medium: Linocut prints on Okawara paper; pastepaper cover.

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.