Wings of terror
Subtitle: Light is where life is
By: Ingrid Wiche
Contributors: Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Artists' Books Collection (Columbia University. Rare Book and Manuscript Library); Al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition
Publisher: [Ingrid Wiche]
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Germany]
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; Poetry; Artists' books; Al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition
Other titles: Light is where life is.
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.

"A triptych of books against terror with handwritten poems by the artist. 'Wings of terror' opens like a bomb when it is laid down, the three-book form resembling a tank chain or spiked mace. Each book-object consists of three books. In each book-object, there are 2 black books with black wings, but also a light corridor over the little book 'light is where life is.' The two black books and the small book are connected by 'a spiritual closure' represented by a black buckle. We Europeans read from left to right, the Arab world from right to left. Therefore one can attach the book 'Light is where life is' to be positioned on either side between the black wings"--The Book Arts at the Centre for Fine Print Research, UK website.
Notes: 3 books as one book-object; dimensions vary between books.

Medium: Paper, wood, letters.

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.

"I have read with enthusiasm since childhood, writing little poems and texts since 1995, working with artists, including Friederun Friederichs, Lene Rose Gruner, and Cordula Heyl. I am fascinated by human behavioral patterns, which - depending on how people are raised - often can turn out different; yet, we all belong to the same species. The intellectual conversion is done through my own poems on materials like wood, canvas, metal, paper, plants and stone. Recent exhibitions and book events have included: Frankfurter Buchmesse, Frankfurt a. Main; 'grenzenlos' (Hungry Cloth II, 'Limitless') Kunstfluss Wupper, RegioArte e.V.; 'After the Big Bang, ' Brain Cell bulletin Board Ryosuke Cohen, Osaka, Japan; Mayworks 2012, a Festival of Labour and the Arts; Bookmarks X 2012"--Artist's statement from the Book Arts at the Centre for Fine Print Research, UK website.

In English and German.