Touched
By: designed and created by Beth Grossman
Contributors: Mutanabbī, Abū al-Ṭayyib Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥusayn, 915 or 916-965, poet; Al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition; Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Artists' Books Collection (Columbia University. Rare Book and Manuscript Library)
Publisher: [publisher not identified]
Published: 2013
Place of publication: Brisbane, California, USA
Language: eng
Copyright date: 2013
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; Politics in art; Art and society; Artists' books; Al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition
Description: Beth Grossman is a socio-political artist, who sees the visual as a way to create community dialog. Her art and participatory performances are comfortable points of entry into the ongoing dialog about 'correct' history, the life-shaping force of religion and the power of social beliefs. Grossman has collaborated internationally with individuals, communities, city halls, corporations, non-profits and museums in the US, Russia, China, Italy and Germany. She uses art as a creative force to stimulate conversation and focus attention on the environment, history and civic engagement - all aimed at raising awareness, building community and encouraging public participation.
Notes: Printed in an edition of 5.

"Dedicated to the people of Mesopotamia, of Babylon, of Iraq, of Al-Mutanabbi Street."

"Touched was created in response to the 2007 car bombing of Al-Mutanabbi Street, the historic heart of literary life and booksellers in Baghdad, Iraq. A special thank you to Nieam, Ali and Aiman for assistance with Arabic translation and to Karrar for his Arabic calligraphy."

"We leave traces of ourselves on a book's pages, just as a book leaves its imprint on our hearts. A book becomes part of us. Although it can be erased, removed, obliterated, eliminated, forgotten, it lives on in our memory. A book holds its own story of all the people who have touched its pages and been moved by its wisdom, truth, vision. If we could see the fingerprints, we could follow the 'fingersteps' of each reader and read a visual dialog between the readers. Touched is the result of my conversations with three Iraqis and one Egyptian who helped me with fingerprinting, Arabic translation and calligraphy. This edition of books represents our search for a universal way to express the word 'touched' with all its nuances in poetic Arabic. English books open from the right and Arabic books open from the left. This book can be approached from both sides, two different worldviews. The middle of the book can be reached from either side. The journey to the end of this book is actually just the beginning"--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.

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.

Gift; Beau Beausoleil; 2019-2020.