Prevalently known as dafatir (singular daftar; Arabic for notebook), these books by Iraqi artists have come to signify visual art production of the period of the Gulf Wars, sanctions and invasion in Iraq. While not specifically a new format in Iraqi art, their popularity that constituted a contemporary trend, has much to do with the political events of the time. Collectively they tell theirs and Iraq’s painful story of devastation and humiliation. More importantly, while individually they are private works, more like personal journals, together they become a strong act of defiance. Following the invasion of 2003, dafatir focused mostly on the violent destruction of Iraq’s artistic and intellectual heritage. In the context of the devastation of Iraq’s museums and libraries, their format gained much poignancy and relevance. They addressed general and specific issues, including the “deBaathification” policy that was responsible for further organized destruction of certain monuments and their replacement and new walls reshaping the boundaries of their city. This paper explores dafatir as a discursive space of shifts and negotiations for contemporary Iraqi artists and aesthetics in relation to the physical and intellectual devastation, as well as social, cultural and political challenges they and Baghdad faced.