Title: Mandalas for Al Mutanabbi Street
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.

"Whatever one's race, culture or creed, one can meditate using a mandala. These mandalas encourage meditations of those who died, the loss of ancient scholarly works, the loss of an intellectual community and the hopes and good wishes for its revival. The ribbon is white symbolising the thin thread of humanity and red for the intellctual and creative powers of the mind, which bind all artists and writers inextricably to Al-Mutanabbi Street. The box is hand-marbled in red with flowing patterns, symbolic of the flow of thoughts between all who meditate on the mandalas"--Artist's statement from the Book Arts at the Centre for Fine Print Research, UK website.
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, Mandala in art, Symbolism in art, Symbolism of colors in art, Pop-up books, Toy and movable books, Artists' books, Al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition
Places: Iraq, Baghdad, England, Devon
People: Sylvia M. Warham
Time periods: 21st century