3.5.2007
By: by Tennille Davis Shuster
Contributors: Heine, Heinrich, 1797-1856; Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Artists' Books Collection (Columbia University. Rare Book and Manuscript Library); Al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition
Publisher: [publisher not identified]
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Davie, FL]
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
Other titles: Three five two thousand seven; Three five two thousand and seven
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.
Notes: Printed in an edition of 4.

"Quote by Heinrich Heine, overlayed with information regarding the bombing of al-Mutanabbi Street, Baghdad, March 5, 2007. The right, burnt edges of the accordion-fold structure unfold to reveal the profile of a full-height man's body"--Colophon.

Medium: Rives BFK paper; digitally-designed interior; Palatino-type text. Covers are wrapped with sun-washed, sienna-tinted handmade paper, and decorated with recycled pieces of discarded books.

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.

Tennille Davis Shuster was formally trained as a graphic designer at James Madison University in Virginia. During her career as a graphic designer and illustrator, she has been honored with Communicator and ADDY awards, and is an active member of the American Institute for Graphic Arts. She recently earned a Master of Fine Arts from Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Fla. She is currently an associate professor at Nova Southeastern University's Farquhar College of Arts. Her areas of academic interest focus on artist's books as a vehicle for graphic authorship; altered book sculptures and installations; letterpress printing (handset wood and lead type and photopolymer); hand-rendered and digital illustration, and large-format publication design.