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By: GaetanaTrippetti
Contributors: Al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition; Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Artists' Books Collection (Columbia University. Rare Book and Manuscript Library)
Publisher: [GaetanaTrippetti]
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Stockport, 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; Memory in art; Conceptual art; Artists' books; Al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition; John Rylands University Library of Manchester
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.

Gaetana Trippetti was born in Perugia, Italy. She is a poet, actor and conceptual artist, and lives in Stockport, England. Her poetry has appeared in many anthologies and journals in Italy, the UK, and Canada. A collection of her poetry, 'Random, ' was published in 2009 by YouWriteOn.com. She is a member of World Wide Workshop, a company of international actors based at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester. In 2008, she appeared at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival where she performed her 'random acts of poetry.' She is extremely proud and honoured to be part of this project.
Notes: Medium: Mixed media (marbled paper, handmade coloured paper, singed old newsprint, aged photocopies of pages torn from book of poetry, fine sandpaper, green garden twine, red beeswax).

"The inspiration behind the physical aspect of my work was an exhibition at the John Rylands Library in Manchester, where I saw ancient palm-leaf manuscripts of South Asia written in Sinhalese, the literature language of Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon). The intended meaning of the artwork is the enduring power of literature: fire and water cannot destroy the written word, because by reading a book we commit its meaning to memory, and we are therefore able to perpetuate its enduring power through the oral tradition"--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.

Gift; Beau Beausoleil; 2019-2020.