After her husband's premature death in 1961, she was part of the team responsible for completing his iconic monumental work, entitled Nasb al-Hurriyah.

[1] Born in Sheffield in 1928, Lorna received a scholarship and used it to study at the Slade School of Fine Arts, London, graduating with a Diploma in Painting and Design in 1948.

In September 1950 Lorna left Sheffield to join Jewad in Baghdad, Iraq and they were married a week later.

[4] Not long after her arrival in Baghdad, the city underwent a period of "modernisation," and many traditional houses were being demolished.

She became a member of the Society of Iraqi Plastic Artists [7] and the influential The Baghdad Modern Art Group which had been founded by her husband, Jewad Selim and Shakir Hassan Al Said.

Lorna Selim was a teacher at the Girls' College in 1961[11] and also taught drawing at Baghdad University's Department of Architecture, headed by Mohamed Makiya, in the 1960s.

[13][14] Her work is held in permanent collections including the Mathaf Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha and elsewhere.