Remember
Subtitle: people of Al-Mutanabbi Street
By: [designed, printed and bound by Bonnie Thompson Norman ; embellished by Jill Alden Littlewood]
Contributors: Littlewood, Jill, artist; Windowpane Press; Al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition; Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Artists' Books Collection (Columbia University. Rare Book and Manuscript Library)
Publisher: [The Windowpane Press]
Published: 2011
Place of publication: [Seattle, Washington]
Language: eng
Number of pages: 66
Subjects: Vehicle bombs; Bombings; Booksellers and bookselling; Iraq War, 2003-2011; Art and the war; Artists' books; Specimens; Violence; Pictorial works; Books and reading in art; Intellectual life; Terrorism in art; In art; War and civilization
Description: "Al-Mutanabbi Street, located in a mixed Shia/Sunni area of Baghdad, Iraq, was the historic center of book selling and the heart and soul of the literary community ... On March 5, 2007, a car bomb was exploded on Al-Mutanabbi Street. That day, more than thirty people were killed and more than 100 people were wounded. We remember some of them here"--Page following title page.
Notes: Created in response to the Al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition's call to book artists.

"Many thanks to Saud Nass and his friend, Faisal, who wrote the lines in Arabic which translate as 'The memory of these people is in our hearts. & Rest in peace'"--Colophon.

"Letterpress printed. Arabic calligraphy. Embellished with burned sections. Bound in leather ... Signed by Norman and Littlewood"--Vamp & Tramp Booksellers' website, viewed on January 20, 2016.

"The Al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition is issuing a call to book artists to work on a project to 're-assemble' some of the 'inventory' of the reading material that was lost in the car bombing of al-Mutanabbi Street ... This project is both a lament and a commemoration of the singular power of words"--Sarah Bodman's statement, viewed at the Vamp & Tramp Booksellers' website, viewed on January 20, 2016.

"Every book is a surprise. No matter what the spine says or the front promises, once you open it you land in the world of the creator. The people standing on Al-Mutanabbi Street had their noses in books; books for school, books for pleasure, books for gifts or to amuse or to get heated up about. All of that blew up together... people, books, special worlds of words. The books survived: they always do. It is the elegance of an edition. There is nothing so comforting for people. They are gone. To remember them we made a book, a book of beauty. Here they can live forever. But we also wanted to give a jolt, a bit of dust and war, to viscerally convey the sadness we feel for each person who lost their lives that day."--Artist's statement from the Book Arts at the Centre for Fine Print Research, UK website, viewed on May 24, 2021.

Sewn in signatures and case bound in full leather with stuck-on headbands. All edges untrimmed.

Gift; Beau Beausoleil; 2019-2020.

Includes Arabic phrases.