An excerpt from Five hymns to pain
By: Nazik al-Malaika ; translated by Husain Haddawy
Contributors: Rice, Felicia, book designer, printer; Haddawy, Husain, translator; Al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition; Moving Parts Press; Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Artists' Books Collection (Columbia University. Rare Book and Manuscript Library)
Publisher: Moving Parts Press
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Santa Cruz, 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; Pain in literature; Artists' books; Broadsides; Al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition
Other titles: Five hymns to pain; Contained in (expression) Poetry of Arab women.
Description: "On March 5th, 2007, more than 30 people were killed when a car bomb was exploded on Mutanabbi Street, an old and established street for bookselling in the heart of Baghdad's literary and intellectual community. To protest the bombing, the Mutanabbi Street Coalition, a group started by San Francisco poet and bookseller Beau Beausoleil, organized readings and invited letterpress printers to produce broadsides by Iraqi poets and writers. Moving Parts Press contributed An Excerpt from Five Hymns to Pain by Nazik al-Malaika"--Moving Parts Press website, viewed on July 29, 2014.

"This book is dedicated to the literary and intellectual community of al-Mutannabi Street, Baghdad. The text was selected from 'The Poetry of Arab Women: A Contemporary Anthology' edited by Nathalie Handal. Designed and printed by Felicia Rice with the help of Stephen Acerra and Maren Preston"--Colophon.
Notes: Limited edition of 25 copies.

"The presentation ... as a scroll grew out of my desire to print the entire book on one side of a single sheet. As the project developed, the choice of paper (Japanese Hosho) led to another, the choice of typeface (Garamond italic), and finally to the color palette (dun colors accented with red) and image creation (printed and laid down by hand with a brayer) ... the book was to be in an accordion-fold format, but ... it became clear ... that the piece was a facsimile of a papyrus scroll"--Artist's description from Moving Parts Press website, viewed on July 29, 2014.

Letterpress, relief and hand-printed broadside rolled into scroll and issued in a box measuring 11 x 11 x 25 cm.

Rare Book copy 1: rolled into scroll in box, as issued.

Rare Book copy 2: folded; box wanting.

Gift; Beau Beausoleil; 2019-2020.

Gift; Beau Beausoleil; 2019-2020.