oil

BP’s disaster in the Gulf of Mexico spilled almost as much ink as oil - which, for the record, added up to almost five million litres. As the weeks passed, grim reports on the gusher made it increasingly obvious that the BP catastrophe was worse even than Alaska's Exxon Valdez spill, which captivated a generation two decades ago.

In their August 2010 issue, Vogue Italia produced a BP-inspired photo essay entitled “Water & Oil.” Shot by acclaimed photographer Steven Meisel, the spread depicts model Kristen McMenamy covered in oil and dirt, draped over jutting rocks. McMenamy, acting the role of a distressed mermaid swathed in slick-black garments, is complete with tangled hair and legs caught in netting. …

EVERY EDITION that the pocketbook anthology series Alphabet City co-publishes with The MIT Press binds together the work of a diverse group of artists and writers who investigate a single topic from many angles.

FUEL was a theme particularly well suited to our method because it is multifaceted. We were able to assemble a collection of works that take the reader from considerations of infrastructure to questions about our fuel fantasies.