Fault lines
By: Mary Tasillo
Contributors: Vermont Studio Center; Al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition; Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Artists' Books Collection (Columbia University. Rare Book and Manuscript Library)
Publisher: [Vermont Studio Center]
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Philadelphia, PA]
Language: eng
Number of pages: 20
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; Oppression (Psychology); Relief printing; Collage; Letterpress printing; Screen process printing; Freedom of expression; Freedom of speech; 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.

"Fault lines began with a text. This text weaves together multiple narratives of conflict and an attempt to reconcile oneself with the existence of violence, both at physical and emotional levels. It takes as a premise that all violence is related to oppression, which may take its form in censorship, in a bombing, in domestic violence, in barbed words. It also takes as a premise that we are all connected, that blood runs through all human veins, as rivers run through all parts of the earth. Layered text in the background, in both English and Arabic, describes the 2007 bombing of al-Mutanabbi Street - but a relatively illegible overlapping of letters reflects the jumble of an explosion, of conflict, of obscured messages. The paper river running through the book replicates twists and turns of both the Delaware River near my Philadelphia home, and the Tigris River. Ultimately, the text both responds to violence in the interest of peace and acknowledges that some conflict (non-violent, please) may be necessary to achieve and maintain freedom of voice"--The Book Arts at the Centre for Fine Print Research, UK website.

Mary Tasillo is a Philadelphia-based artist who works primarily in paper, print, & book media. As part of the collaborative Book Bombs project, her practice extends into the street. Mary's books and prints are owned by collections both public and private. She teaches workshops around the country and also writes about hand papermaking and book arts for publications such as Journal of Artist's Books, Hand Papermaking Newsletter, and the Philadelphia Inquirer. Mary is co-founder of The Soapbox: Independent Publishing Center, Director of Seeds Gallery, and columnist and Outreach Coordinator for Hand Papermaking.
Notes: Printed in an edition of 10.

Medium/materials: Accordion book: relief printing (woodcut, linocut, polymer, pressure printing), collage, on artist-made variable paper (pigmented flax or abaca with screenprinting).

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.

English and Arabic.