This catalogue has been produced on the occasion of the exhibition Walid Raad: Miraculous Beginnings at the Whitechapel Gallery from 14 October 2010 to 2 January 2011.

'What is a photographic image? What type of record does it provide? Can a photograph ever tell the truth or just provide a semblance of reality? How is history constructed, and how the history of art? These are but some of the questions artist Walid Raad has been investigating for the past twenty years in a practice that encompasses photography, film and video, sculpture, installation and performance.

This publication brings together three major bodies of work: a comprehensive selection of photographic and video works produced under the fictional collective name The Atlas Group, various series of seemingly "straight" photography of his native Beirut titled Sweet Talk: Beirut Commissions, and his most recent project, Scratching on Things I Could Disavow: A History of Art in the Arab World.

The publication includes an exchange between the artist and Achim Borchardt-Hume, Chief Curator at the Whitechapel Gallery which explores Raad’s working process; a text on the concept of truth by poet and writer, Alan Gilbert; a text on Raad’s use of photography and its ties to the location of Beirut provided by Blake Stimson and an essay by Helene Chouteau.' - from publisher's website.

Includes foreword by Iwona Blazwick, Director of Whitechapel Gallery.