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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.

"For two years of my life, the Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Project became a riddle to solve. I didn't know what Baghdad was like, but what I did know is that I wanted to say 'no' to any kind of violence; in this specific case, it was violence against culture. It was an act of terror. While I was researching, I e-mailed Anthony Shadid, and he sent me a story about al-Mutanabbi Street. The descriptions were so vivid that I asked his permission to use them in my book. And he answered: 'Yes, Victoria, I'd be honored to be included in your work. Please feel free to use anything I wrote. Good luck, and I'd love to see how it turns out. Best, Anthony.' I want to thank Anthony Shadid for letting me use his inspiring words. The book is about what I felt when I read them"--Artist's statement from the Book Arts at the Centre for Fine Print Research, UK website.

Victoria Bianchetti is a teacher at the National University of Art (IUNA) in Buenos Aries. Some recent exhibitions include: 2013: Gagosian Gallery, Ed Ruscha Books & Co. New York, USA. 2011: Follow-ed (after hokusai) at Impact 7, Melbourne. Australia; Printed matter together with the ABC Artists Books Cooperative, New York; Follow-ed (after hokusai) at P74 Gallery, Ljubljana, Slovenia; Follow-ed (after hokusai,) Winchester Gallery, Winchester, UK. 2010: Artists' books at the Universidad de Granada. La vida desatenta; Kassel Book Fair, Print on demand photobook; Solo Exhibition at Special Collections Room, Bower Ashton Library, Bristol, UK.