Street angels
By: Shellie Jacobson
Contributors: Mutanabbī, Abū al-Ṭayyib Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥusayn, 915 or 916-965, poet; RockBrook Press; Al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition; Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Artists' Books Collection (Columbia University. Rare Book and Manuscript Library)
Publisher: RockBrook Press
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Skillman, NJ
Language: eng
Copyright date: 2012
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; Words in art; Books in art; Artists' books; Al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition
Description: Shellie Jacobson was born in Buffalo, New York. She attended Carnegie-Mellon University (BFA), and completed graduate studies at Rutgers, the State University (Ed. D). She maintains her studio in Skillman, New Jersey. Jacobson has been creating artists books for more than 10 years. She was a visiting artist at the Experimental Printmaking Institute at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania. Her books were included in group exhibitions in many U.S. cities, as well as Costa Rica, Mexico and England. Her books are in permanent collections at the Newark Public Library, Ben Shahn Gallery and are published in Lark Books 500 Handmade Books.
Notes: Printed in an edition of 5.

"The lino cuts are hand-rubbed and printed on handmade Mulberry and Hanji with water based links. The text is a combination of the artist's writings, ancient Hebrew, Aramaic and Arabic printed in ink jet. Other papers are Somerset Velvet, Nideggan and Sekishu. This concertina book is printed and bound by the artist"--Colophon.

"While I was considering joining the Al-Mutanabbi Street Begins Here book project, I was painfully reminded of the history of burned books. Two incidents immediately came to mind: the Alexandria Library in ancient Egypt and the German book conflagrations of Kristallnacht, before the Second World War. Although books can be physically destroyed by fire, I believe the ideas and energy once contained within them never perish. The intention of this book is to offer primal protection for the contemporary ideas newly emerging from the Street. To begin, my marks are letters and words of ancient Semitic languages; connecting with regional roots as well as my own ancient roots. These languages are also woven into the tradition of protection against the evil eye. Perhaps Street Angels may not provide real protection against harm; on the other hand, these angels might help closely guard the ideas we strive to preserve. My print imagery was inspired by the Manuscript of Practical Kabbalah depicting angels, Morocco, 1925. Street angels is dedicated to all authors who risk speaking, writing and publishing their work. It is the loose or scattered pages they leave for me to gather from the Street and bind together. These are the memory pages that form new beginnings"--Artist's statement from 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.