Mark Ruwedel: Westward the Course of Empire (Signed)

This book presents more than 70 prints from Ruwedel’s ongoing series Westward the Course of Empire, an inventory of the residual landforms created by the scores of railroads built in the American and Canadian West since 1869.

The grades, cuts, tunnels, and trestles depicted in Ruwedel’s photographs speak to a past triumph of technology over what was often perceived as hostile terrain, as well as to the desire and struggle to create wealth and power from the land. Long abandoned (and in some cases never completed), the railroads also evoke the futility of the enterprise. This book is thus a sublime yet restrained elegy to the land and to the follies and wonders of human ambition.

 

Title: Westward the Course of Empire
Publisher: Yale University Art Gallery, 2008
Author: Jock Reynolds
Photographer: Mark Ruwedel
Graphic Design: -
Format: Hardcover
Size: 35.5 x 28 cm, 180 pages
ISBN: 9780300141344
Edition: -