The Tower
By: Theresa Easton
Contributors: Mutanabbī, Abū al-Ṭayyib Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥusayn, 915 or 916-965, poet; Al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition; Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Artists' Books Collection (Columbia University. Rare Book and Manuscript Library)
Publisher: [publisher not identified]
Published: 2011
Place of publication: Newcastle upon Tyne, England]
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; Babel, Tower of, in art; Material culture 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.

"Theresa Easton is an artist based in the North East of England, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Easton studied Fine Art, specialising in Printmaking at the University of East London, and completed an MA in Glass at Sunderland University in 2007. Heritage interpretation plays an important part in Theresa Easton's practice. Easton is interested in exploring cultural and historical episodes using contemporary printmaking processes and artist's books. Easton is drawn to working with alternative materials to paper and traditional bookbinding styles thereby pushing the boundaries of printmaking"--A blog at WordPress.com website (viewed June 23, 2015).
Notes: Printed in an edition of 6.

"'The Tower' celebrates traditional bookbinding techniques and connects the universal and cultural condition of creating physical and ethereal icons. The Tower refers to the Tower of Babel and the myths surrounding the ancient city. Images closer to home, such as North East landmarks fuse with ancient ziggurats, bridging the gap between past and present. Supporting International projects such as the al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Coalition is important and promotes the cross-fertilisation of ideas and developments fundamental to Easton's practice"--The Book Arts at the Centre for Fine Print Research, UK website.

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.