The written word remains
By: designed and edited by Nikki Webb and Ken Daley ; Rali Manouk, Arabic translation
Contributors: Mutanabbī, Abū al-Ṭayyib Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥusayn, 915 or 916-965, poet; Daley, Ken, book artist, editor; Manouk, Rali, translator; Al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition; Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Artists' Books Collection (Columbia University. Rare Book and Manuscript Library)
Publisher: [publisher not identified]
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Norfolk, Virginia
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; Printing; Digital printing; Artists' books; Al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition
Notes: Printed in an edition of 12.

"Heather Bryant, lithography/letterpress ; Ivanete Blanco, digital/letterpress; Rachel Gaus, screenprint/letterpress ; Cate Morrison, screenprint/letterpress ; Heather Prestage, letterpress; Leslie Renn, letterpress ; Nikki Webb, letterpress."

"A tribute to the legacy of Al-Mutanabbi Street."

Media used: letterpress, stone lithography; screenprint, and digital printing.

"For this book, Webb and Daley invited contributions from six other colleagues and advanced print media students. They were asked to offer their reflections on the meaning of the book's title: Littera scripta manet (the written word remains). This is an adage that has been in our language since Roman times. It is often attributed to Horace. A great leap in the evolution of human consciousness was the codification of spoken language into written signs and symbols. The development of the scroll and then of the paginated book expanded human access to knowledge and ideas. The book itself, a vehicle information and meaning, became a symbol and a source of power. Such power is always a target of ideological iconoclasts who would attempt to destroy all manifestations of opposing truth. But neither the burning of books nor the murder of booksellers and the readers of books will ever prevail. The written word cannot be extinguished through violent acts, nor can such acts ever be justified. Their moments of mayhem only live in infamy as symbols of wasteferul, pointless, and useless ignorance. The book may be read in either Eastern or Western modes"--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.

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.