A 'library of exile' to help reassemble the collection of the University of Mosul

Edmund de Waal's 'Library of Exile' installation was open to the public at the British Museum until very recently. Photo: AFP

One of the victims of the occupation of Iraq's second largest city by the Islamic state for three years, the library of the University of Mosul, renowned throughout the Middle East, lost almost all of its documentary holdings in the chaos of the war.

Which is why British artist and author Edmund de Waal will soon donate 2,000 books from his "library of exile" to the Iraqi establishment. These works were written by nearly 1,500 authors who have experienced exile over the centuries, such as Voltaire, Samar Yazbek, Ai Qing, Czeslaw Milosz but also Edmund de Waal's grandmother, Elizabeth.