Al-Mutanabbi Street
Subtitle: the street of books
By: Bernd Friedrich
Contributors: Mutanabbī, Abū al-Ṭayyib Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥusayn, 915 or 916-965, poet; Al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition; Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Artists' Books Collection (Columbia University. Rare Book and Manuscript Library)
Publisher: [BFS Edition]
Published: 2013
Place of publication: Berlin, Germany]
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; Letterpress printing; Lithography; Artists' books; 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.
Notes: Medium/Material: Leporello fold, lithographic print and letterpress print on handmade paper: 240 gsm.

"With my book, I want to connect Berlin and Baghdad. Al-Mutanabbi Street is the centre of bookselling in Baghdad, where in 2007 the bomb attack happened. I dedicate my book to the memory of the victims of the bomb attack. My idea for the book was on the one hand to create a specific relation to the bookselling street in Baghdad, and on the other hand, to be understood by as many people as possible regardless of the language they speak. The use of the name of this famous Iraqi poet as a name for the street presented the opportunity to use the form of leporello fold. I chose a vivid background befitting the life of al-Mutanabbi Street. It was printed as a lithographic print with a hand press. The other parts are made by using letterpress printing. The main design elements are the big red letters forming the name of al-Mutanabbi. Above and below that I point out what is special about this street in Baghdad: the buying, selling and trading of books. The writers from all over the world chosen by me to correspond to the respective letters are supposed to remind the viewer of the book of this artist. They are alive here for all of the writers that remain unnamed"--The Book Arts at the Centre for Fine Print Research, UK website.

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.