Center for Book Arts' Summer Exhibition

Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here assembles artists' responses to the tragic loss of a cultural and intellectual hub in Baghdad that occurred on March 5, 2007, by a bomb explosion. Al-Mutanabbi Street had been the historic center of Baghdad bookselling, and the heart of the Baghdad literary community. This important and timely exhibition will be held in five New York City cultural venues. The Center for Book Arts is presenting the exhibition in collaboration with Alwan for the Arts, Columbia University Libraries, International Print Center New York, and Poets House.

The exhibition features approximately 250 artists' books and 50 prints by artists from around the world, and was co-organized by Beau Beausoleil, Founder of the Al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition, and Sarah Bodman, Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Fine Print Research in Bristol, UK. A comprehensive catalogue accompanies the show. 

Center for Books Arts
28 West 27th Street, 3rd Floor
New York, NY 10001
Telephone: (212) 481-0295

Center for Book Arts

For the past three years, the Center for Book Arts in NYC has been involved in a Collections Initiative, which involves the in-depth cataloguing and presevation of its fine art collections, amassed over a 35 year lifespan.  

Works by such artists as Ed Ruscha, Bruce Nauman, Martha Rosler, Barbara Henry, Pablo Helguera, Carlos Motta, Karina Skvirsky, and many other established and emerging artists are counted among the Center’s collections.

This permanent collection is now on tour nationally, currently at the Museum of Printing History in Houston and heading to Lafayette College in the fall.

The exhbition of artist books, prints, catalogues and  ephemera demonstrates the breadth and caliber of its collection, which will stand as a valuable resource for artists, scholars, writers, educators and the general public.  Marking the culmination of the three-year initiative, Multipe, Limited, Unique offers an overview of the history and development of book arts over the past 40 years, and examines the role of the institution in both nurturing and promoting innovative artists and preserving traditional artistic practices.