Phantom City: A Photo Novel (English and Dutch Edition)

In this photographic novel, Dutch artist Kim Bouvy explores the way urban surroundings are perceived and valued – and how that is reflected in the visual culture, including art and architecture. Bouvy focuses on the city of Rotterdam through 160 images culled from newspaper clippings, promotional materials, postcards, and other images, which she mixes with photographs she took around Rotterdam between 2001 and 2006. Through these images and texts, Bouvy weaves a tale about a phantom city, a place that everybody recognizes but no one knows, where the present, future and past collide and merge into an unexpected narrative. Another thought-provoking work from this poet of the “condition urbaine.”