Beautiful Terrible Ruins: Detroit and the Anxiety of Decline

229 Pages·2015·5.58 MB·English

by  Dora Apel

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