Al-Mutanabbi, once again
By: art by Wuon-Gean Ho ; poetry by Ingrid Scheider ; letterpress by Umberto Giovannini
Contributors: Mutanabbī, Abū al-Ṭayyib Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥusayn, 915 or 916-965, poet; Scheider, Ingrid, poet; Giovannini, Umberto, letterpress artist; Al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition; Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Artists' Books Collection (Columbia University. Rare Book and Manuscript Library)
Publisher: [Wuon-Gean Ho]
Published: 2012
Place of publication: London, 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; Artists' books; Al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition
Description: Wuon-Gean Ho was born in Oxford in 1973, and graduated with a BA in History of Art from Cambridge University, before taking up a Japanese Government Scholarship in 1998 to study woodblock printmaking in Japan. She works in print, artists' books, and animation. For this project, she collaborated with South African poet Ingrid Scheider, and Italian letterpress artist Umberto Giovannini.
Notes: Medium: One sheet of paper screenprinted in 5 colours on both sides and letterpress in 2 colours on one side, folded and glued to make a book.

"This book depicts a symbolic description of the Al-Mutanabbi bombing in 2007. On the first page, memories float over a sleeping torso of a girl. The central page of the book is folded to represent the fold in time that happens during tragic life events. The fold emphasises the movement of the words on white paper. The pocket of paper behind the folded area reveals a glimpse of colour and tells of the humanity and life stories which were erased by these events. The final page symbolises the future, where a bird flies up from the girl's hands, and the endurance of creativity is celebrated"--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.

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.

Gift; Beau Beausoleil; 2019-2020.