05/03/2007 al-Mutanabbi Street
By: CJ Robinson
Contributors: Al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition; Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Artists' Books Collection (Columbia University. Rare Book and Manuscript Library)
Publisher: [CJ Robinson]
Published: 2012
Place of publication: [Somerset, England]
Language: eng
Number of pages: 130
Copyright date: 2012
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; Conceptual art; Minimal art; Artists' books; Al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition
Other titles: Five three two thousand seven al-Mutanabbi Street
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.

"The work CJ Robinson has made for the al-Mutanabbi Street project is a book of minimalist simplicity. It contains 130 blank pages, one for each of those killed or injured in the car bombing. The blank pages are a silent memorial to the victims, representing their voicelessness and anonymity, as well as the knowledge lost through the destruction of books. There is a dedication on the first page, and on the last page, a quote from John Milton: 'He who destroys a good book kills reason itself'"--Statement from the Book Arts at the Centre for Fine Print Research, UK website.

"The work of CJ Robinson blurs the boundaries between literature and visual art. He has produced collage, texts, books, sound pieces, projections and 'found narratives.' In 2009, he obtained a Master's Degree in Fine Art from the University of the West of England, where he gained a Distinction. Since then he has self-published several book works in his own name, and several others, under the heteronym of James Merrick. His books are available in a number of book shops, including the Book Art Book Shop in London, and can be bought directly from www. blurb.co.uk. Some of his work is held in the collections of the Centre for Fine Print Research in Bristol, the Tate Library in Tate, Britain, and in University College, London. In 2012, he contributed a work to the Al-Mutanabbi Street Project, an international touring exhibition of book artists, which will eventually find a permanent home in the Iraqi National Library in 2015. And in 2014, he participated in an exhibition of UK and Russian book artists in Moscow"--The artist's personal website (viewed July 14, 2015).
Notes: Printed in a limited edition of three.

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.