Printed in an edition of 3.

Medium: Collage, handmade paper.

Includes several well-known quotes on the subjects of war and peace. One quote is from Mao Tse-Tung: "Politics is war without bloodshed, while war is politics with bloodshed." Another quote is from Jeanette Rankin: "You can no more win a war, than you can win an earthquake."

On March 5th, 2007, a car bomb exploded on al-Mutanabbi Street in Baghdad. Al-Mutanabbi Street is located in a mixed Shia-Sunni area. More than 30 people were killed and more than 100 wounded. Al-Mutanabbi Street, the historic center of Baghdad bookselling, holds bookstores and outdoor bookstalls, cafes, stationery shops, and even tea and tobacco shops. It has been the longstanding heart and soul of the Baghdad literary and intellectual community for centuries. In response to the attack, a San Francisco poet and bookseller, Beau Beausoleil, rallied a community of international artists and writers to produce a collection of letterpress-printed broadsides (poster-like works on paper), artists' books (unique works of art in book form), and an anthology of writing, all focused on expressing solidarity with Iraqi booksellers, writers and readers. The coalition of contributing artists calls itself Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Coalition.

Gift; Beau Beausoleil; 2019-2020.

As a collage and assemblage artist, Elena Mary Siff's unique books are an extension of her work in mixed media. The sculptural works and text pieces derive from her background in assemblage art, where she has an established reputation. Siff has been creating books as part of her exploration of visual space, volume, movement and color for many years. She is constantly exploring and expanding the artistic paradigms of the book as object. Her work is in the Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry, the UCLA and UCSD Special Collections Libraries, and the Museum of Modern Art, N.Y.C., among others. Her books have been in international book festivals in Ireland, Vilnius, and the Seoul Korea Book Arts Fair.