26 people + 1
By: Victoria Bianchetti
Contributors: Mutanabbī, Abū al-Ṭayyib Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥusayn, 915 or 916-965; Shadid, Anthony, correspondent; Al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition; Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Artists' Books Collection (Columbia University. Rare Book and Manuscript Library)
Publisher: Centro de Edición Villa Lynch
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Buenos Aires, Argentina
Language: eng
Number of pages: 11
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
Other titles: 26 people plus 1; 26 people plus one; Twenty six people + 1; Twenty six people plus 1; Twenty six people plus one
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.

"For two years of my life, the Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Project became a riddle to solve. I didn't know what Baghdad was like, but what I did know is that I wanted to say 'no' to any kind of violence; in this specific case, it was violence against culture. It was an act of terror. While I was researching, I e-mailed Anthony Shadid, and he sent me a story about al-Mutanabbi Street. The descriptions were so vivid that I asked his permission to use them in my book. And he answered: 'Yes, Victoria, I'd be honored to be included in your work. Please feel free to use anything I wrote. Good luck, and I'd love to see how it turns out. Best, Anthony.' I want to thank Anthony Shadid for letting me use his inspiring words. The book is about what I felt when I read them"--Artist's statement from the Book Arts at the Centre for Fine Print Research, UK website.

Victoria Bianchetti is a teacher at the National University of Art (IUNA) in Buenos Aries. Some recent exhibitions include: 2013: Gagosian Gallery, Ed Ruscha Books & Co. New York, USA. 2011: Follow-ed (after hokusai) at Impact 7, Melbourne. Australia; Printed matter together with the ABC Artists Books Cooperative, New York; Follow-ed (after hokusai) at P74 Gallery, Ljubljana, Slovenia; Follow-ed (after hokusai,) Winchester Gallery, Winchester, UK. 2010: Artists' books at the Universidad de Granada. La vida desatenta; Kassel Book Fair, Print on demand photobook; Solo Exhibition at Special Collections Room, Bower Ashton Library, Bristol, UK.
Notes: "This book was finished on the 20th August 2012. It is an edition of seven books. It is a manila paper envelope, 11 sheets of white paper. It was made on lithography at the Centro de Edición Villa Lynch, Buenos Aires"--Colophon.

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.