Details from life
Subtitle: sketching at the 2011 Minnesota State Fair
By: Roz Stendahl
Contributors: Al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition; Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Artists' Books Collection (Columbia University. Rare Book and Manuscript Library)
Publisher: [publisher not identified]
Published: 2011
Place of publication: Minneapolis, Minnesota]
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; Cultural property; Destruction and pillage; 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.

"I am not a political artist, but thinking about the cowardly bombing on al-Mutanabbi Street reminded me that sometimes the most subversive approach we can take to win over minds is to show normalcy of a benign kind. My book documents some of my sketching adventures at the 2011 Minnesota State Fair. Every year Minnesotans exercise the right and privilege of congregating in public and exchanging ideas, from serious and frivolous. It is my fervent hope that someday people everywhere can enjoy the same expectations in their daily lives. The book is a secular prayer"--The Book Arts at the Centre for Fine Print Research, UK website.

"Roz Stendahl (BA English, Univ. of Missouri-Columbia; MA English, Univ. of Minnesota) is a graphic designer, illustrator, and writer who has worked in publishing for over 20 years. Initially her work involved copyediting and production management in college textbooks. In 1987, Roz started her own design and full-service production company, Dapper Design. She has designed over 300 college textbooks, as well as created illustrations for textbooks and magazines. Roz has taught adult and children's classes in a variety of subjects including writing, literature, journaling, book arts, and digital art, for 20 years. In 1998, she was one of 10 artists selected by Intermedia Arts for the inaugural year of their Artists in the Schools Program. Roz has provided workshops in Minnesota public schools in book arts, digital arts, and journaling. Roz has written numerous articles for a variety of national and trade magazines on topics as diverse as colon cancer, training dogs to track, and how to use colored pencils. She studied scriptwriting at Film in the Cities, and is a member of Minnesota Screenwriters' Workshop"--The artist's website (viewed July 22, 2015).
Notes: Printed in an edition of 6.

Medium/materials: Editioned digital journal facsimile bound as a Japanese stab binding. The artist's sketches from life were scanned; the book was created on a Mac, using QuarkXPress and Photoshop. The color cover/title page inset was tipped in. Text is ITC Veljovic; papers (various) and Irish waxed linen thread were used. Faber-Castell Pitt artist's calligraphy pen was used for most drawings. Watercolor washes were added on site with a Niji waterbrush, and a small travel palette containing Daniel Smith watercolors was also used.

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.