Written on the Land presents Mark Ruwedel’s ongoing photographic project that looks at the impact of technologies and culture on the land. His subtle yet rigorous, decade-long investigation has resulted in a fascinating accumulation of images portraying not only those devastations we have wrought during our own recent history, throught military manoeuvres, weapons testing, resource extraction and cultural modification’s but also the violent intrusion that was the ‘conquering’ of the west, in particular the building of the railways and the application of the new site names by European immigrants and explorers. The book covers Ruwedel’s work from 1990 to 2001, divided into three sections: The Ice Age; Pictures of Hell; and Westward The Course of Empire. These three series are interrelated, as archeological history, land use and the act of naming places combine to form a picture of human interaction with the land.
The publication includes a list of works and biographies.