It is what it is
By: Helen Allsebrook
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: 2012
Place of publication: Bristol, UK]
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; Toys in art; Specimens; War and civilization; Vehicle bombs; Visual literature; 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.
Notes: Edition limited to three copies.

Medium consists of child's toy car and trailer, pages from an 'unwanted book, ' in a Perspex case.

"In 2009, Jeremy Deller began to draw attention to the atrocities of the Iraq war by touring the remnants of the car bomb which blew up the main book-selling street of Baghdad. To many, al-Mutanabbi Street seemed far away from everyday living. By putting the vehicle back on the road, so unrecognisably compounded and disfigured by a bomb, he aimed to increase awareness of the realities of war, targeting the voyeurs who had been observing through the safety of the media. This responsive piece of work is a focus for discourse, drawing attention to the devastating attack on cultural life, intellectualism and power. It stands as a metaphor for the rich historical knowledge lost and acts as a cenotaph to the absent lives. By presenting the work in a typical museum display box, the artist aims to promote a feeling that this is a time capsule - the significance of which is never to be forgotten"--The Centre for Fine Print Research 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.