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Dafatir:
Contemporary Iraqi Book Art
Exhibition
runs through November 30, 2008
Dafatir: Contemporary Iraqi Book Art is a groundbreaking
and thought-provoking traveling exhibition curated by Nada
Shabout of the University of North Texas. It features the
work of 17 contemporary Iraqi artists, and is the first
in-depth examination of the book form in contemporary Iraqi
art.
Dafatir is the Arabic word for notebooks. As
Venetia Porter, curator for the Islamic Collections at the
British Museum, writes in the exhibition catalog:
This important exhibition of Dafatir--artists'
books--could also have been called Seventeen Ways of Looking
at Iraq. For the seventeen Iraqi artists whose Dafatir are
highlighted here have chosen the form of the book to do just
that. They focus on themes which express Arab and Iraqi
identities and demonstrate concern for the present ruin of
their homeland. There are books of poems and disturbing
works which chronicle the last tragic years of Iraqi
history: the Saddam years, the effect of sanctions during
the 1990s, and after 2003, the continuing human suffering,
and the physical destruction of the places which contain the
tangible roots of Iraqi identity and culture.
... The remarkable aspect of these Dafatir is that they
enable us to look at history directly through the eyes of
these artists. The importance the artists place on
literature, the deep love of their country and the evident
pain they feel at the ravages it is still undergoing are
evident for all to see in these deeply compelling works.
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Amar Dawod
Book of Branches
Water color on folded paper.
2004
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 Amar
Dawod
Trace of Blood
Collage on board.
2001
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Dia al-Azzawi
Book of Shame:
Destruction of Iraqi Museum
Plaster and mixed media on paper.
2003
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Dia al-Azzawi
Poetry Book
(Adonis)
Gouache on folded paper.
1999
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Dia al-Azzawi
Poetry Book (Sadi
Youssef)
Gouache on folded paper.
1995
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Ghassan Gha’eb
Improvisation
Mixed media on paper.
2002
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Ghassan Gha’eb
Iraqi Document
Mixed media on paper.
2003
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Ghassan Gha’eb
Poetry Book (Mudafar
al-Nawab)
Mixed media on paper.
2004
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Hana’ Mallalah
Baghdad Day Book
no. I
Mixed media on paper.
2001
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Ibrahim Rashid
Book of Earth
Mixed media on paper and wood.
1999
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Ismail
Fattah
Family Book
Mixed media on paper.
1997–2000
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Ismail
Fattah
Homage to Jawad
Salim
Mixed media on paper.
1988
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Kareem Risan
Baghdad Burning
Mixed media on paper.
2003
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Kareem Risan
Graffiti of
Occupied City
Mixed media on paper.
2004
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Kareem Risan
Pilot Vision of
Baghdad
Mixed media on paper.
2003
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Kareem Risan
Book of Sanction
Ink on paper.
1999
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Mahmud al-Obaidi
Interpretation of
Iraqi Daily Life
Acrylic on board.
2004
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Moaid Nama
The Big Brother
Mixed media on paper.
2003
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Fakher Mohammad
Poetry Book (Al-Sayab)
Acrylic on board.
2004
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Mohammed al-Shamarey
Book of Baghdadi
Diary no. I
Mixed media on paper.
2003
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Mohammed al-Shamarey
Book of Baghdadi
Diary no. II
Mixed media on
paper.
2003
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Mohammed al-Shamarey
My Trip from Basra
Ink on folded cloth mounted on wood.
2005
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Nazar Yahya
Baghdad Day of
Destruction
Mixed media.
2003
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Nazar Yahya
Book of Emptiness
Mixed media on handmade paper.
2004
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Nazar Yahya
Card of
Illumination
Collage and mixed
media on paper.
2001
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Nadem al-Kufi
Poetry Book (Mudafer
al-Nawab)
Mixed media on paper.
2004
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Nadem al-Kufi
Tale from Kalila
and Domna
Mixed media on
paper.
undated
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Nadem al-Kufi
A Warm Book
Printed paper, wool.
2001
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Rafa’ al-Nasiri
Improvisation
Acrylic on paper.
2002
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Rafa’ al-Nasiri
Poetry Book
Acrylic on folded paper.
2003
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Sadiq Kwaish Alfraji
Al-Thawra City
Mixed media on
paper mounted on wood.
2003
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Sadiq Kwaish Alfraji
Poetry Book (Mudafer
al-Nawab)
Mixed media on paper mounted on wood.
2004
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Samer Usama
Improvisation
Ink and collage on paper.
2003
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The Arthur
& Mata Jaffe Center for Book Arts
Wimberly Library, Room 350/ 3rd floor east
Florida Atlantic University
777 Glades Road
Boca Raton Florida 33431
Telephone: 561.297.0226
e-mail:
jcutrone@fau.edu
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