Al-Mutanabbi Street starts here
By: Gwendolyn van Essen
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: 2012
Place of publication: Groningen, Netherlands]
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; Politics in art; Symbolism in art; Symbolism of colors 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 books are very much inspired by the process of working itself, and what I was thinking about during the process. I think of how, in a symbolic way, the bombing took place, and how I could express this in my work, and in what manner I should chose. I simply vividly imagined how the pages should be drawn together. The pages were drawn together in one book, like they were put together again. In the other two, I visualised the same thing by drawing into the pages. The third book has an inside folded out paper of a drawing and threads 'running' through the paper. What you are able to visualise through this is my way of remembering what had happened. The books were thus made by my own hands; the paper consists of old cloth and paper. I worked on it with brown ink, which I usually use in my work. The covers around the books were also sewn and embroidered, and ink-dyed cloth put on it, to symbolize the attack on al-Mutanabbi Street. Everything I visualised was like it was put together again afterwards--after the attack. I visualized what this attack must have felt like: the smoke, the blood of the people, the anguish, the tears, and the anger about it all"--Artist's statement from the Book Arts at the Centre for Fine Print Research, UK website.

Gwendolyn van Essen makes drawings, paintings in oil, and graphics. Characteristics of her work are its austerity and its simplicity. Stylising of forms is important to the artist; she favours round forms, and she often she works after a model. The drawings in colour crayon are of many layers on paper. The drawings made (after a model) consist of India ink in different colours, using pen, bamboo pen, and brush on paper. Putting down the form in one line is the basis of her drawing. The majority of the drawings have been made during drawing sessions after a (nude) model. The artist puts down on paper immediately what comes to her mind. The artist is led by her spontaneity and free associations, which is shown in her way of painting, and often, also, by her use of colour. The work is characterised by an expression of spirituality, and is sometimes enchanting and poetic. The recreation of a visual reality is not so important as much as the artist's thoughts or feelings, which is shown by her use of form and colour. Characteristics of her style, in general, are the use of bright colours, a generous use of paint, and the use of simplified forms. This visual artist is, among other things, inspired by the drawings and paintings of Henri Matisse, Kees van Dongen, Vincent van Gogh, Edvard Munch, Paul Gaugain, Asian Art, Expressionism, and Abstract Expressionism. Gwendolyn van Essen has a studio in the heart of Groningen, and has exhibitions in several museums and galleries. Gwendolyn van Essen is a member of the Northern artists"--The artist's personal website (viewed July 29, 2015).
Notes: Medium: Paper, cloth, ink, threads. Dimensions of each book may vary, but are generally letter-size.

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.