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.

"It was a clear morning, the first day of spring. In the little flowerpot on the bedside table was a little bunch of violets, the white sheets, the hands placed one next to the other, tied to a blue thread. Those hands had accompanied mine when sketching my first designs and tenderly followed my first readings. There always was a book in his hands, even after a tiresome day. I wished to bind those hands to mine. The day before, in Rome, there had been a big demonstration against the war in Iraq. The thousands of people present had tightly held one another's hands around an extremely long flag, bearing the colours of the rainbow, with the writing 'It's Springtime.' On 22nd March 2004, my father left our hands. On 5th March 2007, Al-Mutanabbi Street. My father's hands and the poem of Etel Adnan are to remember Al-Mutanabbi Street"--Statement from the Book Arts at the Centre for Fine Print Research, UK website.

"Loretta Cappanera was born in Cividale del Friuli (Ud), Italy. She works partly in her studio in Udine, and partly at the Scuola Internazionale di Grafica in Venice. She widens her research by developing new expressive dimensions through fresco and ancient techniques. Her works are part of the collection of artists' books at the Scuola Internazionale di Grafica in Venice, Italy; at Biblioteca MART Rovereto, Italy; at Biblioteca Nazionale and Biblioteca Casanatense in Rome, Italy; at Museo dell'Illustrazione in Ferrara, Italy; at Gabinetto Stampe Antiche e Moderne in Bagnacavallo, Italy; at the School of Art Media and Design, UWE Bristol, UK; at King St. Stephen Museum, Szekesfehervar, Hungary; at Contemporary Art Center in Vilnius, Lithuania, and at the San Francisco (collection Ferlinghetti) in California"--Red Libro de Artista website (viewed July 29, 2015).