Waning gibbous moon
By: art by Barbara Hosein ; Tania Baban-Natal, translator
Contributors: Mutanabbī, Abū al-Ṭayyib Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥusayn, 915 or 916-965, poet; Baban-Natal, Tania, translator; Al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition; Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Artists' Books Collection (Columbia University. Rare Book and Manuscript Library)
Publisher: [Barbara Hosein]
Published: 2013
Place of publication: Carmel, Indiana]
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; Al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition
Description: "I have studied book arts at the Herron School of Art, Indianapolis Art Center (IAC), John C. Campbell Folk Art School, Ivy Tech, and Paper and Book Intensive. I have shown work in Indianapolis at Gallery 924, the Harrison Center, and the Indianapolis Art Center; and at the Kalamazoo Book Art Center; Gallery 117, Roswell, NM; and the 10th Annual Altered Barbie Exhibition, San Francisco. My work will appear in 500 Handmade Books Vol. 2. Awards include Best of Fiber, Bookmaking or Paper Arts and Merit Award for Experimental or Non-Traditional Materials at the IAC 74th Annual Student Show"--The Book Arts at the Centre for Fine Print Research, UK website.
Notes: Moon photo-image in the work is by Thomas Bresson; artwork photography is by David Hughes.

Medium: Paper, board, silk, mirror.

"Often the memory of a life-altering event can be evoked by an image, a sound, or a scent that immediately brings to mind where we were and what we felt when we heard the news. Waning gibbous moon depicts one visual detail of March 5, 2007: the rising of the moon late that night. For those far away from Baghdad, the same moon shone as did the one over al-Mutanabbi Street. It was two days past full, effaced at the upper edge. This triangular book, when folded, resembles a kite with trailing strings. When unfolded, the repetition of geometric shapes echoes Islamic architecture. An outer envelope, made from paper hand-marbled by the artist in the traditional Ottoman style, alludes to end papers used in bookbinding since the 16th century. Inside the book, each verse flanks its reversed image, as if an invisible mirror existed in the plane of the fold between them. At first glance, the mirrored text may appear confusing, like unfamiliar language. Waning gibbous moon reminds us that when contemplating something that seems strange, inscrutable, or foreign, we need only hold up a mirror to see a reflection of ourselves"--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.

Text in English and Arabic.