Untitled : a collection of maps for Al-Mutanabbi Street : Baghdad, Iraq

Description:	Medium: Recycled wooden cigar boxes in containers. Quaquaversal - wheresoever - turned in whatever way towards a single point viewing from right or left - reflecting the direction of written languages - English/Arabic...map cartography in multiple languages, timelines, histories, beliefs & boundaries...ephemera from old newspapers, childrens books, atlases, dictionaries, encyclopedias...Other names for Wheresoever: Al-Mutanabbi Street, Baghdad, Bagdad, Iraq, Mesopotamia (The Land Where Two Rivers Meet - Greek), British Mandate Of Mesopotamia, Persia, Ottoman Empire, Far East, Middle East Asia Minor, Assyria, Sumer, Chaldean Empire, Garden Of Eden, Paradise. Designed in recycled wooden cigar boxes from Cuba, the container is a conceptual form of a map-holder (knee-board) that I saw in an old National Geographic photo. I designed this edition of books as a collection of maps and ephemera - juxtaposing images from satellites to stone carvings. The books are untitled and unscripted - no sequence, no numbered pages, no order - with over 17 different names for this ancient place. A jet pilot wore a metal clipboard strapped on above the knee so as to free hands for flying while unfolding and reading maps. There is no sequence of time, no preferred direction, no real sense to be made of any of this! There is no anatomy of bombing, no need for actual maps, no real sense to be made of any of this! There is no point of view that is right, no point on a map that makes sense to be bombed, same as it ever was; no real sense to be made of any of this.My experience with books has been a life-long engagement - scribbling marginalia, deconstruction, conceptual, rebellious, reader, writer, designer, typesetter, printer, artist, collector, bookstore, book maker and now, letterpress. Ive been under the influence of teachers, mentors, books read, art seen, workshops and in the company of many collaborators. My minds eye is like a spinning collide-ascope with surrealist-einsteinian hands (4th dimension) which includes transparency, impression & mark making
Origin:	2011
Created By:	Vilmain, Suzanne
Contributor(s):	Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Coalition
Source:	http://iuidigital.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/AMSSH/id/773
Collection:	Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Coalition Collection
Rights:	http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Copyright:	In Copyright
Subjects:	artists book art bookworks

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