Art library
By: Friederun Friederichs
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: [Friederun Friederichs]
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Herrenberg, Germany]
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; Libraries in art; Miniature books; 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.

"German artist Friederun Friederichs constructs intricate artists' books. Visually arresting and meticulously crafted, Friederichs explores the form from every angle. Incorporating Grimm's fairy tales, found images, her travel experiences, and literature, Friederichs creates a world of intrigue in a book format. Her work is collected by some of the most prestigious museums and libraries around the world including: Herzog August Bibliothek, Kunst-und Museumsbibliothek, Deutsches Spielkartenmuseum, and the Florida Atlantic University Libraries' Arthur & Mata Jaffe Center for Book Arts"--Art Knowledge News website (viewed June 24, 2015).
Notes: Artist book object: Book box with miniature books; mixed media.

"Why not take ART as the best language that does not need translation. Art speaks every tongue. Art makes itself understandable without words, attracts mind and soul by emotion and thought. Art knows no boundaries, art would be the best messenger. This artist book object works like a tiny art library, a bookshelf, a tiny cupboard, a container for miniature books, cut and folded from my own original artworks. Books can burn, but no book tradition can be burnt!"--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.