Mortal City

A heightened perception of urban violence increasingly dominates public discourse, but, as current events seem to demonstrate, these crises continue without immanent resolution. The very definitions of the city and of violence are constantly being reevaluated: the site of the city is shifting across real and imagined space; violence has been exposed outside the traditional areas of social conflict. Mortal City, published With StoreFront for Art and Architecture, is comprised of a series of essays investigating direct and indirect forms of violence and the city. Mortal City presents several different approaches to the subject. Articles by Donald Albrecht, Diane Ghirardo, Herbert Muschamp, Richard Plunz, and Lebbeus Woods, among others, are accompanied by photo essays by Warchitecture and Camilo Vergara and an interview with Mark Wigley. "We have gone from fearing the death of the city to fearing the city of death, and this traumatic change is reflected passionately in this book". -- A.D.