Pages of time
By: Chris Ruston
Contributors: Al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition; Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Artists' Books Collection (Columbia University. Rare Book and Manuscript Library)
Publisher: [publisher not identified]
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Southend-on-Sea, 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; Collective memory; Loss (Psychology) in art; Grief in art; Cuneiform tablets; Time 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.

"From an original background in Fine Art, Chris Ruston enjoys working with paper and ink, producing both paintings and artists books. Her images are created by allowing an interplay between the random mark, and the directed hand. Starting with a loose idea, her approach allows the fluid technique of working wet into wet to play a part in guiding the direction of the work. This is a process which can only be partially controlled. Repeating simular marks offers a variety of results. Sometimes the joy of a random mark is enough, while at other times the piece becomes layered and worked over and over, buried like layers of strata, holding and containing a moment of time. Recent work has been concerned with aspects of our changing climate. Chris is particuarly interested in what is happening to the ice caps. She seeks to express something more than her personal story, and reaches out to broader aspects of life and the enviroment. The idea of connecting to something beyond the self, and incorporating Earth's story, is a constant thread through her work. A number of themes are revisited and explored; all share this common link - a celebration of the natural world, and of the human spirit. The work invites the viewer to follow, to unravel secrets, and to pay close attention to the world around them"--Artist's personal website (viewed July 15, 2015).
Notes: Medium. Various fine papers, drawing inks, gold leaf.

"I would like to thank Eileen Grace O'Malley Callahan for her kind permission to use her words."

"Pages of time comprises three books: In the still hot air, Crumbling pages, and The heart now held. Beginning with the raw pain of loss, In the still hot air, a hollow figure lies in the centre of the book. This is followed by Crumbling pages, where the figure rests quietly beneath Eileen Callahan's words. Finally the third book's content is enclosed within an ancient cuneiform tablet, opening to remind us of The heart now held. Together they form a gesture of remembrance in the face of ongoing grief - for to remember is to keep alive"--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.
Table of contents: title: [Vol. 1].; title: In the still hot air -- -- [v. 2].; title: Crumbling pages -- -- [v. 3].; title: The heart now held.