Walid Raad, BETTER BE WATCHING THE CLOUDS / I WANT TO BE ABLE TO WELCOME MY FATHER TO MY HOUSE, 2019

Walid Raad investigates how violence affects bodies, minds, art, and tradition. This artist’s book highlights two of his thoughtful and witty artworks. Here, as elsewhere in his artworks, Raad departs from historical events linked to the protracted Lebanese wars of the past 40 years to create somewhat absurd, outlandish but plausible documents. The first part concentrates on the local, regional, and international political figures whose faces and names became fixtures in the Lebanese landscape; the second relies upon diaries that Raad’s father kept during the wars.