On March 5th 2007, a car bomb was exploded on al-Mutanabbi Street in Baghdad. Al-Mutanabbi Street is in a mixed Shia-Sunni area. More than 30 people were killed and more than 100 were 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 heart and soul of the Baghdad literary and intellectual community.
Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here assembles artists' responses to the tragic 2007 bombing that resulted in the destruction of Al-Mutanabbi Street, a cultural and intellectual hub in Baghdad. This major travelling exhibition, which features approximately 250 artists' books and 50 broadsides by artists from around the world, was co-produced by Beau Beausoleil, Founder of the Al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition, and Sarah Bodman, Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Fine Print Research in Bristol, UK.
This important and timely exhibition is being held in five New York City cultural venues until the end of September after which a complete set of all the books will be donated to the Iraq National Library in Baghdad.
