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| The Garden of Eden, 1979 by Harvey Wang |
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| Adam Purple and The Garden of Eden, 1982 by Harvey Wang |
Adam Purple & The Garden of Eden by Amy Brost with
photographs by Harvey Wang is included in an exhibition of self-published
photobooks in the Doris and John Norton Gallery for the Center for Creative
Photography at the Phoenix Art Museum in Arizona. INFOCUS, the Photography Support Organization of Phoenix Art
Museum, invited photographers to send examples of their self-published
photo books. The exhibition explores the range of ways artists are using newly
available commercial technologies in order to make books. The jury chose 151
books from 15 countries in the Americas, Europe, Asia and Australia to be
displayed. See more about the exhibition at www.infocus-phxart.org/photobooks
The book is about Adam Purple, who in 1975 set out to plant
a garden behind his tenement building at 184 Forsyth Street, at a time when the
Lower East Side was a crime-ridden wasteland. It was a massive undertaking. While clearing nearly 5,000 cubic
feet of debris using only simple tools and raw muscle power, Adam began to create his own
topsoil from materials he found at the site and around the city. By 1986, his world
famous eARThWORK had grown to 15,000 square feet. Adam 'zenvisioned' the Garden
expanding until it replaced the skyscrapers of New York. For Adam Purple--social
activist, philosopher, and urban
gardener/ revolutionary—the Garden was the medium of his
political and artistic expression. When the Garden was slated for demolition to
make way for a housing project, many prominent New Yorkers wrote letters and made
statements of support for Adam and the Garden. Nevertheless, The Garden of Eden was
razed on January 8, 1986, and the new housing project did not include an apartment for
Adam or space for a new garden. In terms of his revolutionary ideas about
sustainability and living as humble members of the natural world, Adam was ahead of his time. He
has not yet been properly recognized as an important environmental artist.
