Christopher Thomond 

Baghdad’s ‘Street of the Booksellers’ honoured at Manchester’s John Rylands library

Christopher Thomond, for the Guardian Northerner, looks at some of the delicate 'artists' books' which bear witness to the world's determination that free speech will survive in Iraq. You can read more about the exhibition and the al-Mutanabbi Street bomb on 5 March 2007, by Martin Wainwright here
  
  


The bombing of Mutanabi book market in Baghdad, 2007
A man stands amid rubble just after a suicide car bomb exploded in al-Mutanabbi Street, Baghdad's famous haunt of booksellers, buyers, artists and writers, where all Iraqi communities mingled even in the harshest days of dictatorship. The attack on 5 March 2007 targeted precisely this mixture of relaxed open-ness and intellectual freedom. Photograph: Khalid Mohammed/AP Photograph: Khalid Mohammed/AP
Reading room, The John Rylands Library
The main reading room in the magnificent John Rylands Library on Deansgate in Manchester, which was given to the city by the Cuban widow of its first millionaire. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian
Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian Photograph: Christopher Thomond/Guardian
al-Mutanabbi Street
The current exhibition shows over 130 'artist's books' which attempt to recreate the spirit of the street. Organised by the al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition of writers and artists, it argues that "this attack (part of a long history of attacking the printed word) was an attack on us all."
Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian Photograph: Guardian
al-Mutanabbi
Gwen Simpson from Essex used old coffee filters to create her tribute, which embraces the cafes which were also part of al-Mutanabbi's street life. You can read more here.
Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian Photograph: Guardian
al-Mutanabbi Street
The exhibits use familiar images such as the phoenix rising from the ashes, and celebrates in particular the simple power of letterpress to keep discussion alive through swiftly-printed pamphlets.
Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian Photograph: Guardian
John Rylands
Other books recall the street's vast archive of letters from customers, seeking everything from books in Korean or Latin to a set of pencils or the latest Vogue
Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian Photograph: Guardian
John Rylands
Artists have contributed from all over the world and contributions are still coming in. The exhibition moves in July to San Francisco and New York before touring internationally. Organisers suggest that it "will never end."
Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian Photograph: Guardian
John Rylands
The tribute from German artist Friederun Friederichs. You can read more about it - and all the other exhibits - here.
Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian Photograph: Guardian
John Rylands
One set of all the little books and other tributes will be given to the Iraqi National Library in Baghdad where al-Mutanabbi Street has been rebuilt. Shoppers have returned but there are fewer booksellers and it is expected to take years for the old free-and-easy atmosphere to be regained
Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian Photograph: Guardian
John Rylands
The shocking reality of what happened on the street contrasts with the quiet dignity of the library's Victorian architecture. Later this year, the exhibition will return from the United States to be shown at the equally venerable library of the Lit and Phil in Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian Photograph: Guardian
 

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