War Dreams
Tunnel book. 2010. 5.75" x 4" x 2.5". Inkjet-printed images on Canson paper, wire, glue, ink pen, watercolor pencils, charcoal pencil.
Nostalgia
Tunnel book. 2010. 3.5" x 2.75" x 1.5".  Watercolor paper, tracing paper, other art papers, inkjet printed images, glue, ink pen, ink, watercolor pencils, brads, binder's thread.
Gaza
memorializing the children killed in Gaza
December 2008-January 2009
Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here
This ongoing project was started by Beau Beausoleil of San Francisco, CA in the effort to commemorate and memorialize the March 2007 bombing of al-Mutanabbi Street, the booksellers' street in Baghdad. There are over 260 participating book artists worldwide with works exhibited in many countries. The project began with a call to printers, resulting in 130 broadsides that continue to be shown in a variety of venues around the world. These can be seen here. An inventory of the 262 artist books made for the project can be found here.

My book, "Dear al-Mutanabbi Street," is a letter of empathy to the survivors of this terrible bombing, expressed through collages that call up my own experience of war and loss. The book measures 8" x 4.5" (open).  


War & Memory
patricia sarrafian ward
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If It Were Zack
Paper sculpture. 2009.
14" x 2.25" x 2.5"
Inkjet printed photographs on Canson paper, glue, acrylic paint.

photo credits
The Same One Place
Reversible accordion book.
8.5" x 11" watercolor paper, inkjet-printed images, glue, ink pen.
Two originals, inkjet editions available.
(size)
Works in memory of Gazan children
The Israeli assault on Gaza  December 27, 2008- January 18, 2009, or "Operation Cast Lead," resulted  in hundreds of innocent civilians being killed and thousands injured and left homeless. The number of children who were killed ranges between 300-350.  At that time, in reaction to the horrifying stories of children dying, I made an artist book, In Memoriam.  During the last few days of 2009, in solidarity with the Gaza Freedom March, I made the sculpture If It Were Zack. The violence against children in Gaza continues daily. I could be making these same books now.

For many years after being forced to leave Lebanon, I dwelled in a mixed state of trauma and painful nostalgia. The war haunted me, and when that slowly faded, I was left with the persistent sense that I did not belong anywhere, that I had no home. The themes of war, dispossession, and displacement permeate all my works, in both book arts and writing.
(sample pages)
  

book arts