OBSCENITIES

There is a street in Saint Louis which sleeps, unseen.

List of images

Goya El Sueño de la RazónWyeth Robin Hood and his CompanionsRenoir Bal du mouilin de la GaletteKlimt The EmbraceKatsushika Kamakura-no-GengoroCouture The Romans of the DecadenceBosch The Garden of Earthly DelightsRembrandt The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes TulpTurner The Slave ShipCole The Course of Empire: DestructionFuseli The NightmareGey Conscious JudasWyeth Nathan HaleRedon Guardian Spirit of the WatersBazzi St. Sebastian Picasso GuernicaDavid La Mort de Marat

Photographs in this book were taken in Chain of Rocks Park in north Saint Louis. They show a series of abanonded roads which once connected Bellefontaine Neighbors with Riverview drive.

Nature has begun her patient, hidden work of unmaking. But asphalt, concrete, and steel resist her blind creep and smothering embrace, and so the street sleeps uneasily to its slow death, dreaming of fantasties and nightmares.

This book was produced by Alexander Perkins in the Urban Books studio at Washington University in St. Louis, in the fall of 2011.

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