Text as light
By: Amanda Thackray
Contributors: Providence Public Library (R.I.). Special Collections; Center for Book Arts (New York, N.Y.); Rhode Island School of Design. Nature Lab; Al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition; Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Artists' Books Collection (Columbia University. Rare Book and Manuscript Library)
Publisher: [Center for Book Arts]
Published: 2013
Place of publication: New York, NY]
Language: eng
Copyright date: 2013
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; Cultural property; Destruction and pillage; Conceptual 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.

"A response to the tragedy of Al Mutanabbi Street through a meditation on the shape and value of books, this book also reconciles time spent at both the Nature Lab at RISD and the Providence Public Library Special Collections in Providence, RI. Thanks to Jordan Goffin, Neal Overstrom, and Rachel Atlas"--Colophon.

"Amanda Thackray is a New Jersey based artist who holds an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. While she is trained in traditional and contemporary printmaking methods, her work ranges from installation and sculpture, to cast glass multiples, artists' books, drawings and mixed media works on paper"--Artist's statement from artist's website (viewed July 24, 2015).
Notes: Printed in an edition of 6.

"Archivally ink-jet printed on Epson Hot Press Natural and vellum paper with hand-set letterpress type in 30-point Columna and 12- and 18-point Optima Roman, and printed at the Center for Book Arts in NYC. The imagery is made by scanning 18th century books with a digital microscope"--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.