He Was Happy on That Day

Inscriptions

Signed and dated, in graphite, lower right margin: D[illegible] 2006; numbered, in graphite, lower left margin: 19/30; titled and inscribed, in plate, upper to lower center, left to right: HE WAS HAPPY ON THAT DAY THEY DID NOT WET THE FLOOR / AND HE COUlD WAlKED [sic] AROUND / THE FEMALE INTERROGATOR SPOKE ARABIC. SHE HELD HIS PENIS ASK [sic] HIM IF HE WAS MARRIED ASKED / HIM SEX QUESTIONS AND WOULD HAVE; inscribed, in plate, upper to lower left: INTERCOURSE / AND HELP HIM / GET RELEASED / SHE TRIED TO / ARROUSE [first R scratched out] HIM / BUT HE WAS NOT / AROUSED SHE / UNDRESSED / SHE SAID IRAQI / MEN HAD BETTER / ERECTIONS [C inscribed over backwards C] / SHE LEFT HE / WAS CONFUSED / SHE BROUGHT HERSELF / UP CLOSE TO HIM & / SAID SHE HEARD HIS / ERECTION WAS 30 cm / & SHE WANTED TO / SEE.; inscribed,in plate, upper to lower right: THE NEXT / DAY HE WAS / LEFT ALONE. / THE [backwards N]EXT DAY / THE BlACK / SOLDIER HIT / HIM WITH A / STICK WITH / A DRAGON IT / WAS VERY PAIN / FUL. ON HIS BACK / WITH A STRING / THEY TIED HIS SEX / TIGHT, THE BlACK / SOLDIER, WHO WORE / GlOVES, HE Still / HAS MARKS FROM / THAT STRING. HE / WAS FORCED TO / DRI[backwards N]K. THEY SAID / "YOU TALK OR WE / WILL CUT IT OFF / THEN IT WAS VERY PAINFUL / AND THE TRANSLATOR GOT HOT / WATER & POURED It O[backwards N] HIS SEX / HOTTER THAN A SHOWER BUT NOT / SCALDING [C inscribed over backwards C]; inscribed, in plate, lower left to right: THEY TAPED HIS MOUTH CLOSED AND PUT TWO THINGS lIKE / CIGARETTE BUTTS IN HIS NOSE. HE COULDN'T BREATHE HIS / THROAT WAS BURNING THEY TOOK HIM TO THE DOCTOR WITH THE INTER- / ROGATOR & TRANSLATOR THE DR. ONLY GAVE HIM TWO SMALL PILLS / THE "DR" WAS WEARING MILITARY CLOTHES [inscription oriented upside down, with top line at bottom edge of sheet] Embossed, lower right corner: [insignia: C [symbol] [three horizontal lines stacked vertically], with arc above and below] Watermark, lower right: BFK RIVES

Course History

THEA 10.1, Human Rights and Performance, Laura Edmondson, Spring 2014

Exhibition History

A Space for Dialogue 47, Bearing Witness, The Abu Ghraib Project by Daniel Heyman, Kristin Monahan Garcia, MALS 2005, Assistant Curator of Academic and Student Programming and John Mathias, Class of 2011, Main Lobby, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, December 5, 2008-February 1, 2009. [Exhibited in conjunction with Dartmouth College's annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration and its 2009 theme, "Getting to the Mountaintop: Moving through Conflict toward Reconciliation."

Provenance

The artist, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; sold to the present collection, 2007.

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Subjects