Table Of Content

Beautiful Terrible Ruins Beautiful Terrible Ruins Detroit and the Anxiety of Decline DORA APEL Rutgers University Press New Brunswick, New Jersey, and London Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Apel, Dora, 1952 – author. Beautiful terrible ruins : Detroit and the anxiety of decline / Dora Apel. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978 – 0 – 8 135 – 7 407 – 3 (hardcover : alk. paper) — ISBN 978 – 0 – 8 135 – 7 406 – 6 (pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978 – 0 – 8 135 – 7 409 – 7 (e-book (web pdf)) — ISBN 978 – 0 – 8 135 – 7 408 – 0 (e-book (epub)) 1. Detroit (Mich.) — In art. 2. Ruins in art. 3. Regression (Civilization) in art. 4. Arts and society — U nited States — H istory — 2 0th century. 5. Arts and society — U nited States — History — 2 1st century. I. Title. NX653.D48A64 2015 704.9'49977434 — d c23 2014040073 A British Cataloging-in-Publication record for this book is available from the British Library. Copyright © 2015 by Dora Apel All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher. Please contact Rutgers University Press, 106 Somerset Street, New Brunswick, NJ 08901. The only exception to this prohibition is “fair use” as defined by U.S. copyright law. Visit our website: http://rutgerspress.rutgers.edu Manufactured in the United States of America For Joan Weinstein Contents List of Illustrations ix Acknowledgments xiii Introduction: Modernity in Ruins 1 1 Ruin Terrors and Pleasures 12 2 Fear and Longing in Detroit 27 3 Urban Exploration: Beauty in Decay 58 4 Detroit Ruin Images: Where Are the People? 75 5 Looking for Signs of Resurrection 113 6 Surviving in the Postapocalyptic Landscape 132 Conclusion: Your Town Tomorrow 153 Notes 159 Selected Bibliography 183 Index 189 vii Illustrations 1. Steve McCurry, New York City, 2001. Wrecked Remains of the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers 2 2. One thousand Ford Model T chassis, one shift’s output, outside the Highland Park Plant, 1913 7 3. Joseph Gandy, An Imagined View of the Bank of England in Ruins, 1830 15 4. Damien Hirst, The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, 1991 19 5. James D. Griffioen, The Tree, from Detroit Public Schools Books Depository, 2007 – 2 012 22 6. Andrew Moore, Birches Growing in Decayed Books, Detroit Public Schools Book Depository, from Detroit Disassembled, 2010 23 7. Julia Reyes Taubman, East Grand Boulevard between Saint Paul and Agnes Streets, from Detroit: 138 Square Miles, 2011 41 8. James Fassinger, Demonstration in front of the Detroit Institute of Arts protesting projected sale of art by the Detroit emergency manager, October 4, 2013 51 9. RomanyWG, Hoover Squadron, abandoned asylum, UK, from Beauty in Decay, 2010 63 10. Martino Zegwaard, The Lost Philosopher, hospital, Germany, from Beauty in Decay, 2010 64 11. Giovanni Battista Piranesi, The Drawbridge, plate VII from Carceri d’Invenzione, 1745 65 ix

Description:

Once the manufacturing powerhouse of the nation, Detroit has become emblematic of failing cities everywhere—the paradigmatic city of ruins—and the epicenter of an explosive growth in images of urban decay. In Beautiful Terrible Ruins, art historian Dora Apel explores a wide array of these images