Empty shelf
By: Lucy Baxandall
Contributors: Mutanabbī, Abū al-Ṭayyib Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥusayn, 915 or 916-965; 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: [London, England]
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; Papermaking; 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.

Lucy Baxandall is a papermaker, book artist and installation artist based at Kingsgate Workshops Trust in London, England. She has worked as a financial journalist, jewellery designer/maker, translator and teacher of French, German and art.
Notes: Medium: Handmade pigmented linen paper, inkjet print, inks.

"A booklet to be carried about, handled like a string of beads, assembled, disassembled while thinking. Presented in a paper bag like those used for small, inconsequential purchases, and an outer sleeve for protection in transit. The fibre of the paper is made from worn household linens brought to the UK in 1933 by the artist's grandparents and mother fleeing persecution in Germany. The resulting paper is very flexible and resilient. The text was sparked by an image of a bookseller clearing a shelf in an Al Arabiya video report about the 2012 government raid on al-Mutanabbi Street"--The Book Arts at the Centre for Fine Print Research, UK website (viewed May 14, 2015).

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.