StreetView
By: Cushman/Cox
Contributors: Mutanabbī, Abū al-Ṭayyib Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥusayn, 915 or 916-965; Cox, Anna, artist; Al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition; Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Artists' Books Collection (Columbia University. Rare Book and Manuscript Library)
Publisher: [publisher not identified]
Published: 2013
Place of publication: Place of publication not identified]
Language: eng
Subjects: Violence; Bombings; Iraq War, 2003-2011; Protest movements; Books and reading in art; Booksellers and bookselling; Intellectual life; Social conditions; Censorship; Terrorism in art; Artists' books; Al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition
Other titles: Street view
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.

"StreetView's pages are purposefully blank because there are no more pages on Al-Mutanabbi street. The pages grey color and nubby pattern reference the color of smoke and the texture of rubble. The book's pristine facade will soon discolor from dirty hands and oily fingerprints. The cover will slowly transition from blank and story-less into a perfect patina of interaction and grubby exploration. Books should be read, city streets should be walked on, booksellers should feel safe to sell their books. Like al-Mutanabbi Street, StreetView is waiting for a new story, a transformation"--Statement from artist's website.
Notes: Media: slide film, custom, archival, Viewmaster reel, handmade abaca & recycled clothing, paper, wood.

Title and statement of responsiblity from side of box.

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.