Wafaa Bilal's 168:01 Crowdfunds 55,000+ Books for Baghdad Academy

Artist Wafaa Bilal launched the project 168:01 to replace 70,000 books destroyed when the University of Baghdad's Academy of Fine Arts library was looted and burned in 2003. The project, first presented in January at the Art Gallery of Windsor (Ontario, Canada) and then at the Esker Foundation in Calgary until August 28, features a shelf initially holding 1,000 white dummy books. Bilal, an alumnus, coordinated with the academy to create an Amazon wish list of missing titles ranging from Hans-Ulrich Obrist to ceramics manuals and ancient local art treatises. The public could donate via a crowdfunding campaign that far exceeded its $9,000 goal, raising over $55,000 in weeks, or purchase and send books directly to the exhibition, where they replaced the white tomes. In April, the collected books were shipped to Baghdad and placed on library shelves for students.