This image is from Celebrate People’s History/Iraq Veterans Against the War: Ten Years of Fighting for Peace and Justice, a portfolio that celebrated IVAW’s first ten years and was produced by Justseeds, IVAW, Booklyn, Repetitive Press, and the Civilian Soldier Alliance.
(IVAW is now known as About Face: Veterans Against the War)
Winter Soldier On the Hill was visualized as a disruption of the dominant and nationalist narrative regarding the U.S. invasion of Iraq. The pentagon pattern acts as a stand-in for an official narrative of the state, what might typically be said “on the hill.”
Becky Nasadowski is a graphic designer living and working in Austin, TX. She has worked with IVAW and Warrior Writers on their second anthology, in 2008.
Heath Schultz is an artist, activist, and writer living in Austin, TX.
A pentagon shape in outlined black against a white background is repeated in rows of seven across and about ten rows down. However, as the pattern descends, the small pentagons begin to shift and get jumbled, falling into chaos. Text on the side says, “WINTER SOLDIER ON THE HILL.” Text in small type below, states: “On May 18, 2008, veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan testified in Washington, D.C. in front of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Speakers provided eyewitness accounts of war crimes, a failed foreign policy and rules of engagement that resulted in the killing of innocent civilians, the destruction of Iraqi civil society and a lack of clear mission objectives. These veterans illustrated how occupying a foreign country is inevitably unwinnable and leads to dehumanization, racism, sexism, and several other issues including the failure to provide care for returning veterans, necessary in wartime and its aftermath.”
