Burning daylight
By: John Paul Dowling
Contributors: Mutanabbī, Abū al-Ṭayyib Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥusayn, 915 or 916-965, poet; London, Jack, 1876-1916; Al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition; Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Artists' Books Collection (Columbia University. Rare Book and Manuscript Library)
Edition: 1st edition.
Publisher: [publisher not identified]
Published: 2013
Place of publication: Galway, Ireland?]
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; Graphic design (Typography); Al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition
Description: "These books are a typographic interpretation of what happened on March 5th 2007, al-Mutanabbi Street, Baghdad. The first book uses the text from Jack London's out-of-copyright novel, 'Burning daylight, ' as a metaphor for the economic reasons behind the American and British occupation of Iraq. The second and third books use the same text with a variety of different typographic applications used. They are an attempt to highlight what the car bombing tried to do to the people and texts of the Iraqi literary and intellectual communities. The work hopes to embody the fleetly nature of humanity and the removal of system both social and political"--The Book Arts at the Centre for Fine Print Research, UK website.
Notes: Medium: Combination of Offenbauch Bible Paper - 60gsm and High White Image Recycled Paper - 80gsmpaper.

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.

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.

Gift; Beau Beausoleil; 2019-2020.