Uncommon journeys of al-Mutanabbi Street books
By: Nina Ardery
Contributors: Mutanabbī, Abū al-Ṭayyib Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥusayn, 915 or 916-965; 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: Indianapolis, Ind.]
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; 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.

"Uncommon journeys of al-Mutanabbi Street books imagines a bookstore, run by the bookseller, who traded in used books. Quite a few of the books were in English. Some had been there for years, and some were very recent arrivals. What they all had in common was that none of them survived the bombing of al-Mutanabbi Street on March 5, 2007. Like the 130 people who were killed or injured on the street that day, each of the books had a distinct history, took a different route, and had a different reason for being in that place at that time. The random collection of books was thrown together by circumstance, but their fates were forever linked. Uncommon journeys of al-Mutanabbi Street books presents the stories of nine of these books. My first inclination was to actually blow up the books, and then photograph them, but I just couldn't do it. The images in Uncommon journeys are of the books as they might have been in the bookseller's shop. So, ironically, no books were destroyed in the making of this work"--Artist's statement from the Book Arts at the Centre for Fine Print Research, UK website.
Notes: Published in an edition of 7.

Medium consists of softback book with fold-out map.

Nina Ardery is a letterpress printer and book artist working in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. She is the co-proprietor of Carillon Press, a small studio dedicated to the production of posters, illustrated books, and wood engravings.

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.