Mark Dion

For a while now I've owned four books about the High Line, the popular elevated park that cuts through Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood on an old freight line. Just last week I picked up a fifth book, a pocket-sized field guide and handbook that is subtitled "of thoughts, musings, observations, case studies, and histories (alternate, conventional & otherwise) on the elevated structure formerly and now known as the High Line of the borough of Manhattan for flâneurs, cosmopolitans & bon vivants." The long title may be a mouthful, but the contents are concise and varied. There are a couple of essays (by Ethan Hauser and Kenneth Helphand), guides to wildlife and plants, a timeline, a photo essay of objects lost atop the High Line, and a map. The book is hardly a replacement for the other books on the park, but it's not meant to be. It's a handsome and informative book (the former is not surprising given that it's a Printed Matter book) that is easy to take on a walk, all the while providing a few different ways of looking at the park.… (mer)