Baghdad 1258 A. D.
Ruth Ginsberg-Place, USA
| Baghdad 1258 A. D.;
Ruth Ginsberg-Place, Brookline, MA, USA, January 2013 In 1258 A.D. Mongol invaders plundered the city of Baghdad while the young calligrapher, Ibn Shakir, watched from a minaret. He witnessed soldiers destroying ten thousands of books and throwing them into the Tigris River where the ink from the pages mixed with the blood from dead bodies turning the waters red and black. For the first time, he made drawings to record the devastation. After fleeing Baghdad, he retrained as a painter, becoming the Islamic world's greatest miniaturist. He believed that unlike ripping a page of text from a book that would destroy its continuity and meaning, if a painted page was torn out of a book it could live on as an individual image or become part of a new book and perhaps have an eternal life. In commemorating the destruction of a street devoted to the written word, the Al-Mutanabbi Starts Here project has parallels to Ibn's story. Although he never wrote again, he continued to express himself in painting. Expression lives on and transforms. My book depicts the blue and black waters of the Tigris churning violently with blood red streaming through them, as a grey figure watches. The text describes the plunder; the cover abstracts the turbulent waters. Dimensions: 10 x 10” closed, 10 x27” open; Medium: Archival pigment print created from three monotype paintings then printed on both sides of Rives BFK paper Ruth Ginsberg-Place, photographer, printmaker and book artist, was born in New York City. Trained in painting and fiber arts, she had been a tapestry artist early in her career. Her artists' books, accompanied by text, deal with nature, autobiography and politics. Ruth's latest one-person exhibition was 'Wanderings on the Schoodic Peninsula', photographs and journals created in residency at Acadia National Park. After receiving her MFA from Syracuse University she taught Art in Southern Illinois University. Collections include: Boston Public Library, The Art Institute of Chicago, Johns Hopkins University's Center for Bioengineering, and others. Her studio is at the Boston Center for the Arts. ginsberg@rcn.com ruthginsbergplace.com |