This collection supports and promotes awareness to the important mission and framework of the Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Coalition's focus on the lasting power of the written word and the arts in support of the free expression of ideas, the preservation of shared cultural spaces, and the importance of responding to attacks, both overt and subtle, on artists, writers, and academics working under oppressive regimes or in zones of conflict, despite the destruction of that literary/cultural content.

"From an original background in Fine Art, Chris Ruston enjoys working with paper and ink, producing both paintings and artists books. Her images are created by allowing an interplay between the random mark, and the directed hand. Starting with a loose idea, her approach allows the fluid technique of working wet into wet to play a part in guiding the direction of the work. This is a process which can only be partially controlled. Repeating simular marks offers a variety of results. Sometimes the joy of a random mark is enough, while at other times the piece becomes layered and worked over and over, buried like layers of strata, holding and containing a moment of time. Recent work has been concerned with aspects of our changing climate. Chris is particuarly interested in what is happening to the ice caps. She seeks to express something more than her personal story, and reaches out to broader aspects of life and the enviroment. The idea of connecting to something beyond the self, and incorporating Earth's story, is a constant thread through her work. A number of themes are revisited and explored; all share this common link - a celebration of the natural world, and of the human spirit. The work invites the viewer to follow, to unravel secrets, and to pay close attention to the world around them"--Artist's personal website (viewed July 15, 2015).