Water – Alphabet City series

Knechtel, J. (ed.) (2009). Water. (Alphabet City ; 14). Cambridge, MA, USA, MIT Press. 320 p. : 200 colour ill. ISBN-10: 0-262-01329-0. ISBN-13: 978-0-262-01329-1
Price: $15.95/£11.95 (cloth)
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In this full-colour artbook, writers, scientists, architects, and artists consider the many aspects of water, at levels from the microscopic to the global, touching on subjects that range from new water infrastructures to ancient bathing rituals.

Water includes a chemist’s accounting of the true cost of water; photographs taken inside a city’s secret waterways; an urban planner’s description of how Toronto, New York, Hamburg, and Seoul have redesigned and rethought their waterfront areas; a conceptual artist’s series of water bottles “branded” with various modern credos; photographs of a water-damaged ledger from the 1905 Yukon gold rush; two architects’ rethinking of how to collect, divert, and transport water from water-rich to water-poor regions; a philosopher’s invocation of the spiritual lessons of water; and photographs of a disturbingly beautiful flooded landscape.

Read John Knechtel’s introduction to Water.

Read the related features The Waters of Metaphysics by Timothy Stock and The Public Bath and the City By Christie Pearson.

View the full table of contents.

Image from Water the book. Photo: Alphabet City

Water is the 14th annual anthology in the Alphabet City series. Each volume in the series addresses a one-word topic of global concern and draws on the diverse perspectives of writers and artists from many cultures and disciplines. Alphabet City, founded by John Knechtel in 1991, appears each October accompanied by an arts and ideas festival in Toronto, Canada.