America Deserta

“The desert is also seen as an appropriate place for fantasies…the fantasies of the buggy maniacs and lone hikers, the seekers after legendary gold mines, the exploders of the first atomic devices, the proponents of advanced missile systems, and the diggers of gigantic earth sculptures….In a landscape where nothing officially exists (otherwise it would not be ‘desert’), absolutely anything becomes thinkable, and may consequently happen.” Peter Reyner Banham, Scenes in America Deserta (London: Thames & Hudson, 1982), p. 44