What is a book?
Subtitle: poems for Al-Mutanabbi Street
By: written and made by Ama Bolton
Contributors: Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Coalition; Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Artists' Books Collection (Columbia University. Rare Book and Manuscript Library)
Publisher: Barley Books
Published: 2011
Place of publication: Wells, Somerset, United Kingdom
Language: eng
Subjects: Violence; 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; Artists' books
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.
Notes: Text inkjet-printed and titles letterpress-printed from wooden type on Lana Colours paper.

Edition of 26, lettered A-Z.

"I wrote the first of these poems after hearing Dr Saad Iskander on BBC Radio, and later printed it as a broadside for the Al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition. I joined the project because it gave me a chance to do something instead of feeling powerless. Beau's [founder of project] enthusiasm and confidence are infectious! The next six poems were written in response to his call for artists' books. I had already started printing when the final poem was harvested from a CNN interview with Dr Ismail Serageldin, the Librarian of Alexandria. I could not leave it out, so I printed another three pages. I made book-cloth from my own hand-dyed fabrics. The flutter-book is a Japanese book-structure that I have used often since learning it at Bron Bradshaw's studio in Somerset, UK, where I have been a member of her book arts group since 2003."--The Centre for Fine Print Research, UK website (viewed May 12, 2021).

Gift; Beau Beausoleil; 2019-2020.

Flutter-book with pomegranate-dyed book-cloth covers.