Muslim in America (Nancy)
By: Aileen Bassis
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: [A. Bassis]
Published: 2011
Place of publication: Morristown, NJ]
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; Politics in art; Muslims; Artists' books; Al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition; World Trade Center (New York, N.Y. : 1970-2001)
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.

"My art has revolved around social and political issues. Like many, I opposed the war in Iraq as misguided and pointless, a waste of precious human life. Beau Beausoleil's call for book arts for this project immediately appealed to me as a means to communicate across the divide between our culture and the Arab world. At that time, in 2010, there was a great deal of press in the New York City area about a proposed Muslim community center in lower Manhattan that included a mosque. It created a firestorm of controversy and it was politicised by different groups and politicians, everyone with their own agenda. That swirl of rhetoric made me think about a question, what does it mean to be Muslim in America now? I interviewed and photographed several Muslim friends and acquaintances, discussing this question. In this book, 'Muslim in America (Nancy), ' photos of her are combined with photos taken around the area of the World Trade Center site. Her quote, 'I get tired of defending my faith' also appears in Arabic"--Statement from the Book Arts at the Centre for Fine Print Research, UK website.

"Aileen Bassis is a visual artist in Jersey City working in book arts, printmaking, photography and installation. Her use of text in art led her to explore another creative life as a poet. Her work appears in Gravel Magazine, Milo Journal, Specs Journal, Spillway, Grey Sparrow Journal, Amoskeag and others"--BODY website (viewed July 27, 2015).
Notes: Printed in an edition of 5.

Medium: Uses lithographs and transfer prints on different-sized pages.

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.