Lost books series
By: Robbin Ami Silverberg
Contributors: Al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition; Dobbin Mill; Dobbin Books; Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Artists' Books Collection (Columbia University. Rare Book and Manuscript Library)
Publisher: [Dobbin Mill/Dobbin Books]
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Brooklyn, New York, NY]
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; Catalog cards; Artists' books; Al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition
Other titles: Made in Brooklyn
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 tragedy of lost life and of the bookseller community of Al-Mutanabbi Street was the catalyst for these 'lost books.' Catalogue cards from the Brooklyn Museum Libraries were an obvious choice to reference the books destroyed and missing. So I sat with the cards, read hundreds, searching out those that related by content to create interesting texts. Using acrylic paint as 'white-out, ' I continued to develop the 'story-lines.' Paper was made with inclusions of written & drawn elements, and the book cloth was purposely stained. The resulting series honours all that was lost by making new books from those ruins"--The Book Arts at the Centre for Fine Print Research, UK website.

Robbin Ami Silverberg is founding director of Dobbin Mill, a hand-papermaking studio, and Dobbin Books, a collaborative artist book studio. Her artwork is divided between artist books and installations. The work conceptually focuses on word cognition and interlinearity, with an emphasis on process and paper as activated substrate. Silverberg has exhibited and taught extensively in the US and abroad. Her artwork is found in numerous collections, such as the Museum Meermanno, Holland, and Yale University. She is an Associate Professor at Pratt Institute, and on the boards of the Center for Book Arts, NY, Ampersand Foundation & Booklyn Artist Alliance.
Notes: Cover title.

"Second in an ongoing series of unique books."

Medium/materials: Library catalog cards, paint, ink & archival inkjet on Dobbin Mill paper with inclusions, stained book cloth, staples.

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.