Medium/Materials: Book, bandages, text on transparency, quote by Euripides; memory box.

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.

Holland-born, Massachusetts-based mixed media artist Merike Van Zanten makes sculptural paper forms and artists books using found materials. Merike van Zanten got her BA (Honors) in Ceramics from the University of the Creative Arts, Rochester, UK. During this period, she had artist residencies in the USA and Italy. At the London New Designers Exhibition in 2002, she was one of the top ten designers. In 2003, Van Zanten moved to the USA, and began working in letterpress design, printing, and the book arts. She has made commissioned work in the USA and The Netherlands, has work in private collections in The Netherlands, England, and the USA, and has exhibited in England, and currently, in the USA.