The Veterans Book Project is a library of books authored collaboratively by artist Monica Haller and dozens of people who have been affected by, and have archives of, the American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In their printed format, the books provide a place or “container” that slows down and materializes the great quantity of ephemeral image files that live on veterans’ hard drives and in their heads.

Each book re-deploys volatile images with the aim of rearticulating and refashioning memories. It stands both independent of and in concert with the larger collection.

Riley Sharbonno and his story sets the framework for the Veterans Book Project. Riley and his story (Onestar Press, 2009) was authored by Haller and veteran Riley Sharbonno from the hundreds of digital images Sharbonno shot while deployed in Iraq as a nurse at Abu Ghraib prison. Riley and his story came out of a four-year, opened-ended collaboration and established the framework for the Veterans Book Project. www.rileyandhisstory.com