A book....
A book that contains only two drawings. And they are not even in color. The same book shows the same thing from two sides. No really straight lines in the drawings. Most of the paper remains untouched. The book has no back. It opens to both sides. And it shows a place where most people do not even have the room to actually ever open this little book completely. Išve just received my copy today and it is even better than I thought. The book is called Manhattan Unfurled and it was drawn by Matteo Pericoli. There are dates on both 22foot long drawings, somehow indicating that it took from 5/98 till 6/99 to draw the West Side and from 6/00 till 12/00 to draw the East Side. Obviously the East side has less to offer visually and it takes some serious convincing from the publishers to draw it at all.
Did he really draw it from a boat cruising around Manhattan? Does he really think we will believe that he was on a boat on the Hudson in the middle of the winter, with a pencil, but no camera? hmm...
Spaß beiseite. This is an excellent book. It invites to embark onto a journey around Manhattan, or just straight for the building where one lives. (If in Manhattan). And then there is this soft, smooth sky over the city. Should this book be taken away from adults, just given to children, with a pencil?, crayons? Yes! There are no confusing words. Words have been banished into a little brochure with a legend and an essay by Paul Goldberger, The New Yorker magazinešs architecture critic. I have yet to read the essay, so no comments here. The little booklet also contains a visual key identifying important landmarks and streets. For those who do not know Manhattan really well, I guess. And yes, the Twin Towers are in the book. Twice. From the east and from the west. And I am not planning on changing anything about it. (No editing out, or anything like that.) I might quite possibly take some watercolors though... and paint the town red.
