Walid Raad | "Oh God" He said, Talking to a tree

Walid Raad
"Oh God" He said, Talking to a tree
Paris, France: Éditions 591, 2010
[72] pp., 21 x 29 cm., softcover
Edition of 400 numbered copies

Raad's first artist book draws from the 2006 conflict between Lebanon and Israel, a thirty-four-day period of mutual bombardment from July 12th to August 14th. The war resulted in the death of 121 Israeli Defense Forces (628 wounded), and 43 Israeli civilians (with several thousand treated for wounds or anxiety). There were 1,191 Lebanese victims of the war, with 4,409 injured (the Lebanese government does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in death toll figures).

The book features 29 small, isolated images of smoke and flames, assumed to be taken from larger shots documenting the violence and destruction in the artist's homeland of Lebanon. The date and place of the bombing appears in small type in the lower right part of the page: the height of the letters corresponding to the size of a standing man, thus giving the scale of the explosion.

The book includes an unbound English text by Raad called "A Throat Clearing Preamble".

Available for 45 €, here.

Walid Raad
"Oh God" He said, Talking to a tree
Paris, France: Éditions 591, 2010
Edition of  29 signed and numbered copies

Housed in a grey linen box, the special edition includes a unique photograph corresponding to one of the 29 bombings. The photos were printed by Franck Bordas on Hahnemulhe paper photo rag 308g.