hannahgersen:

This month marks my tenth year in New York City. To celebrate this milestone, I decided to make a little book called “Theories of New York”. It’s sixteen pages long, and each page has some insight or observation about NYC that has helped me, over the years, to get a handle on this city. Some of these “theories” are exaggerated, some are jokes, and some are rants. Some I came across in my first couple years here and have kept them in mind ever since; others I have discovered within the last few months.

Sources vary and are not cited—an idea I stole from David Shields, whose book Reality Hunger is a collage of unattributed quotations. I should also note that some of the quotations have been doctored to more accurately reflect my memory of them. If you are desperate to know who said what, you can visit my flickr page, where images of each quotation are captioned with its source.

The pages of my book are taken from several old books of maps created by the New York City Planning Commission in 1969. I found them in a recycling bin in 2003, when I was working for the New York City Parks Department. There’s a book for each borough and they’re filled with beautiful maps and photos of New York City. I’ve pilfered from them over the years to make collages and wrap presents, but this is the first time I’ve made a book from their pages.

I made two copies of “Theories of New York”, both with the same quotations in the same order, but with different page materials and covers. They are 7” x 7”, and the pages are sewn together, pamphlet style, with gold embroidery thread. The first version is posted above, and I will post the second version tomorrow.

Thanks for taking a look & please feel free to email me with comments—or your own theory of NYC.