Rabii
By: Donna Ruff
Contributors: Al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition; Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Artists' Books Collection (Columbia University. Rare Book and Manuscript Library)
Publisher: [publisher not identified]
Published: 2011
Place of publication: Santa Fe, N.M.]
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; Learning; Grief in art; Artists' books; Al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition
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.

"My book is both a lament for lives lost and a testament to the enduring nature of books and learning. Formally, the work is like a book - but its pages tell a visual story of grief. The names of those who died in the bombing are written on the ribbon that winds through pages of cut away text blocks. These names represent only a few of the many thousands of Iraqis who have lost their lives in the war. But hope continues for growth and renewal in this land that has been the home of civilization for millennia"--Artist's statement from the Book Arts at the Centre for Fine Print Research, UK website.

Donna Ruff grew up in Miami Beach, Florida, and was an award-winning children's book illustrator in New York before earning her MFA at Rutgers University in 2000. She has been chosen to create site-specific installations at the Eldridge Street Project and at PS 122 in New York, and for ArtSPACE in New Haven, Connecticut. She received grants from the NewArt Center, Massachusetts, Manhattan Graphics Center, Vermont Studio Center, Santa Fe Art Institute, and Tamarind Institute. Exhibitions include Speaking Volumes at the Kohler Art Center, Fire Works at the Hunterdon Museum, Paper[space] at the Philadelphia Art Alliance, 4th International Graphic Trienniale in Prague, and Feedback: Artist to Artist at Kunstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin. Her work was included in Book Art: Iconic Sculptures and Installations Made from Books, by Paul Sloman. She currently teaches at the Santa Fe University of Art and Design, and divides her time between New York and Santa Fe.
Notes: Printed in an edition of 3.

Materials: Silkscreen on bookcloth, handmade abaca paper, satin ribbon, acrylic.

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.