Irresistible Decay: Ruins Reclaimed

Irresistible Decay uses the collections of the Getty Research Institute to explore the allure of ruins -the curiosity, frisson, reverence, pleasure, and fear that they arouse in those who contemplate the past through its physical traces.

Juxtaposed images and texts render explicit the metaphorical power of ruins, and essays by three noted scholars examine how ruins are invented, reconstructed, and recuperated,