If there's been a way to build it, there'll be a way to destroy it

A reflective essay on the productions of Book Works, the London publisher of artists' books, in relation to the development and destruction of the physical and cultural landscape of the city in which they have worked since the 1980s. I concentrate on some of the earlier books and projects as a way of understanding the aesthetic, social and institutional contexts that this unusual publishing house has worked within and helped to sustain. Richard Marshall, writing in 3AM magazine, said: 'Ian Hunt writes a roaring piece on the destruction of the built environment. He worries that ordinary experiences of our built environment are continually being flattened whilst at the same time the media keeps overloading us with a comprehensive archival deposit. Lives structured by the political economy just get memories and common experiences smashed up whilst at the same time culture is stocked with a hyper-real communal memory.'