The war works hard
By: poem by Dunya Mikhail ; translated by Elizabeth Winslow ; drawings by John Paisley ; Lisa Rappoport [book artist] = al-Ḥarb taʻmalu bi-jidd / shiʻr Dunyā Mīkhāʼīl
Contributors: Mīkhāʼīl, Dunyā, 1965-; Mīkhāʼīl, Dunyā, 1965-; Mīkhāʼīl, Dunyā, 1965-; Mīkhāʼīl, Dunyā, 1965-; Rappoport, Lisa, book artist; Winslow, Elizabeth, 1976- translator; Paisley, John (Peter John), illustrator; Littoral Press; Al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition; Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Artists' Books Collection (Columbia University. Rare Book and Manuscript Library)
Publisher: Littoral Press
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Richmond, CA
Language: eng
Number of pages: 20
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; Persian Gulf War, 1991; Poetry; War in art; Al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition
Other titles: Ḥarb taʻmalu bi-jidd
Notes: Limited edition of 55 copies, signed and numbered by the artist.

Created in response to the Al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition's call to book artists.

"Printed letterpress from handset Bernhard Gothic with Legend titling (for the English), and from photopolymer plates (for the Arabic). The text paper is Rives de Lin or Folio Antique, with Fabriano covers and Hahnemuhle Bugra Butten endpapers. Edition of 55, of which three are donated to the Mutanabbi Street Coalition. Ten per cent of the sales price of the remaining copies goes to Doctors Without Borders for relief work in Iraq"--Colophon.

Accordion structure, letterpress-printed on both sides with text and illustrations (English translation and colophon on verso, original Arabic on recto). Attached at either end to red Fabriano paper-covered boards with English title in black on front board and original Arabic title in black on the back board. Title page letterpress printed in red and black. Illustrations letterpress printed in gray, and text of poem in black.

"The Al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition is issuing a call to book artists to work on a project to 're-assemble' some of the 'inventory' of the reading material that was lost in the car bombing of al-Mutanabbi Street ... This project is both a lament and a commemoration of the singular power of words"--Sarah Bodman's statement, viewed at the Vamp & Tramp Booksellers' website, viewed on January 20, 2016.

Gift; Beau Beausoleil; 2019-2020.

"One of Mikhail's collections is called 'The War Works Hard'. It's also the name of a poem with an ironic take on the meaning and consequence of war ... Mikhail, who now lives in the United States, wrote that poem in response to the Persian Gulf War of 1991"--Transcript from "Morning edition", July 6, 2007, accessed via National Public Radio website, June 22, 2018.

In English and Arabic.