Three days in Baghdad
By: Deborah Cowder
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: Deborah Cowder
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Oakland, California
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; Artists' books; Al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition
Other titles: 3 days in Baghdad
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.

"Three days in Baghdad is an attempt to juxtapose three days of impersonal news coverage with an image of Baghdad as a city of beauty and peace. It is an effort to bring to consciousness the essential nature of Baghdad which lies hidden within the seemingly endless war surrounding it"--Artist's statement from the Book Arts at the Centre for Fine Print Research, UK website.

"With more than 25 years of experience in the graphic arts, my work regularly includes using Adobe's Creative Suite, Quark XPress, and Microsoft Powerpoint. In addition to creating digital artwork, I am skilled at preparing dummies and mock-ups, cutting stencils, hand drawing, and letterpress printing, as well as photography, photo editing, color correction, and proofing. I have worked with prepress houses and printers to obtain high-quality color reproduction in the production of trade books and catalogs"--The artist's personal website (viewed June 19, 2015).
Notes: Printed in an edition of 11.

"The text was created with Adobe Illustrator; the font is American typewriter. It was printed on Neenah Classic Crest natural white 80-pound smooth finish text paper using a Hewlett-Packard LaserJet 5000 printer. The 'hidden' image of Baghdad was printed using a Canon Pixma Pro 9000 inkjet printer. The cover paper is Canson M-Tientes Sand and was letterpress printed using a photopoloymer plate on a Chandler & Price Pilot press; debossing was done on a C & P 10x15 platen press"--Colophon.

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.