Book (b)

Odile is a lovely twenty-three-year-old art-school dropout, a minor vandal, and a hopeless dreamer. Jack is a twenty-five-year-old shirker who's most happy capturing the endless noises of the city on his out-of-date tape recorder. Together they decide to start their own art movement in defiance of a contemporary culture made dull by both the tedious and the obvious. Set in February 1999, just before the end of one world and the beginning of another, Office girl is the story of two people caught between the uncertainty of their futures and the all-too-brief moments of modern life.

In the twilight of a childhood full of wonder, Billy Argo, boy detective, is brokenhearted to find that his younger sister and crime-solving partner, Caroline, has committed suicide. Ten years later, Billy, age thirty, returns from an extended stay at St. Vitus' Hospital for the Mentally Ill to discover a world full of unimaginable strangeness: office buildings vanish without reason, small animals turn up without their heads, and cruel villains ride city buses to complete their evil schemes.

The Loop. Walking tour of the Loop -- Near North Side. Gold Coast ; Little Hell ; Old Town ; Lincoln Park ; Near North Side tour -- Mid-North Side. Lake View ; East Lake View/New Town ; Wrigleyville ; Buena Park ; Uptown ; Mid-North tour -- Far North Side. Rogers Park ; Edgewater ; Far North Side tour -- Milwaukee Avenue corridor. West Town ; Wicker Park ; Ukrainian Village ; Humboldt Park/Logan Square ; Milwaukee Avenue corridor tour -- Near West Side. Near West Side tour -- Lower West Side. Pilsen ; Heart of Chicago ; South Lawndale ; Little Village ; Lower West Side tour -- Old South Side. Near South Side ; Douglas ; Old South Side tour -- Grand Boulevard-Washington Park. Grand Boulevard ; Washington Park ; Grand Boulevard-Washington Park tour -- South Lakefront. Hyde Park/Kenwood ; South Shore ; South Lakefront tour -- Southeast Side. South Chicago ; East Side ; South Deering ; Pullman ; Southeast Side tour -- Stock Yard district. Bridgeport ; McKinley Park ; Back of the Yards ; Canaryville ; Stock Yard district tour -- Near Southwest Side. Englewood ; Gage Park-Marquette Park ; Brighton Park ; Archer Avenue and Chinatown ; Near Southwest Side tour -- Beverley Hills-Morgan Park. Beverley Hills-Morgan Park tour.

The studio as resource. Buzz Spector -- Rochelle Feinstein -- Shana Lutker, "Index: dream studio, 2003-2006" -- Michael Smith, "Recipe: perfect studio day" -- John Baldessari, "In conversation" -- The studio as set and setting. Howard Singerman, "A possible contradiction" -- Frances Stark -- Robert Storr, "A room of one's own, a mind of one's own" -- Bruce Nauman, "Setting a good corner" -- Michael Peppiatt and Alice Bellony-Rewald, "Studios of America" -- Annika Marie, "Action painting fourfold: Harold Rosenberg and an arena in which to act" -- Kimsooja -- Barry Schwabsky, "The symbolic studio" -- The studio as stage. David J. Getsy, "The reconstruction of the Francis Bacon Studio Dublin" -- Art & language, "Art & language paints a picture" -- David Reed -- Thomas Lawson -- Charline von Heyl -- Svetlana Alpers, "The view from the studio" -- Rodney Graham, "Studio" -- Joe Scanlan, "Post-post studio" -- Carolee Schneemann, "The studio, June 22, 2009" -- Daniel Buren, "The function of the studio" -- Daniel Buren, "The function of the studio revisited: Daniel Buren in conversation" -- Carrie Moyer -- Marjorie Welish -- Marjorie Welish, "The studio visit" -- Marjorie Welish, "The studio revisited" -- The studio as lived-in space. Mary Bergstein, "The artist in his studio: photography, art, and the masculine mystique" -- Rachel Harrison -- Lynn Lester Hershman, "The studio present" -- Brenda Schmahmann, "Cast in a different light: women and the 'artist's studio' theme in George Segal's sculpture" -- Karl Haendel -- Brian Winkenweder, "The kitchen as art studio: gender, performance, and domestic aesthetics" -- Glenn Adamson, "Analogue practice" -- Amy Granat, "1107" -- David Robbins -- James Welling, "Polaroids, 1976" -- The studio as space and non-space. Jon Wood, "Brancusi's 'white studio'" -- James Welling, "Paris, 2009" -- Caroline A. Jones, "Post-studio/postmodern/postmortem" -- Courtney J. Martin, "The studio and the city: S.P.A.C.E. Ltd. and Rasheed Araeen's Chakras" -- Katy Siegel, "Live/work" -- Suzanne Lacy, "Beyond necessity: the street as studio" -- Walead Beshty, "Studio narratives" -- Andrea Bowers -- Judith Rodenbeck, "Studio visit" -- Lane Relyea, "Studio unbound".

Legend: My Body as the Middle West -- Map 1: Geographical Solutions : A map of the Middle West, with insets past and current -- Map 2: Alabaster City's Gleam : A body map of Chicago, with insets -- Map 3: American Doll : A map of Hong Kong imagined, with Avenue H insets -- Map 4: Mapping the Body Back : An overlay map, with pages illegible or missing -- Triptik: On a Clear Day, Catalina : Los Angeles itinerary, with overlooks and day trips -- Unmapped: Cities of Possibility -- Map 5: When We Were in the Projects : A topography of my mother's and my Chicago -- Map 6: Navigating Jazz : A map to the end of longing, with insets of my father's and my escape -- Map 7: Here Be Monsters : A cartography of the prairie, with overlays and panorama feature -- Triptik: Waterfront Property : New Orleans itinerary, with overlooks and meanderings -- Remapped: City in the Middle -- Legend Reinscribed: The Middle West as My Body -- Postmetropolis: Body Geographic -- About the Maps.

Preface -- The world of the neighborhoods -- The Near Northwest side -- Bridgeport and Back of the Yards -- The Lower West side -- The Near North side -- New Greek Town -- Kenwood and Hyde Park -- Uptown -- South Chicago -- Devon Avenue : the Jewish community -- Pullman Village and Beverly Hills -- Morgan Park.