They dared to speak the truth

"They dared to speak the truth is a sampling of poems from David Smith-Ferri's two poetry collections, With children like your own and Battlefield without borders, about his visits to war torn Iraq and Afghanistan. In my selection, ordering, and illustration of these pieces, I tried to visually restate the qualities of compassion and investigation that his poetry conveyed to me. David's poems are a mix of interview transcripts, straight-up crime reporting on the atrocities of war, and lyrical meditations on love and the beauty of the Afghan landscape. This is an overwhelming body of work - but al-Mutanabbi Street is a project of witness, and there is no more overwhelming experience than that of modern warfare. If I could sum up this collaboration in one word, it would be 'testify.' In my illustrations of David's poems, I tried to draw attention to one moment in each, so as to emphasise what stood out to me as the driving point. I find that human hands are deeply expressive and spiritually powerful, so I used them extensively in my artwork to invite readers and viewers to take a closer look at the poems and have an emotional response to the stories and voices David presents. I have read that the oldest artwork on the most ancient caves was signed by a charcoal-smudged hand. In my own small way, using charcoal and pastel, I have also tried to create a body of work that will testify to our common humanity. There are three copies of this book in existence. Each poem is accompanied by a drawing and some kind of structure that partially obscures the text, so that the reader/viewer has to interact with the book, peeling aside a layer of distraction or obscurity in order to come in contact with the stories and poems"--Artist's statement from the Book Arts at the Centre for Fine Print Research, UK website.