Acknowledgements
This book the companion to Gas Tank City: a collection of over one hundred drawings completed over fifty years. There would have been more drawings but for a back injury incurred fifteen years into the production. Thanks therefore go to the doctors and nurses at The Whittington Hospital, particularly to the Back School who put me back on my drawing stool. The two years spent standing proved fruitful. Some of the results are contained here. That they are here is due to the generosity of Polaroid, in particular their London representative who saw something in the idea I presented and donated a large box of a hundred packs of their film.
As so often Stuart Ziff and Eileen Lipp provided a safe haven in Santa Monica from which to travel to parking lots and truck stops. Gas was still relatively cheap in 1986. This was a solo journey in an economy sized hatchback rental.
Back in London at the Architectural Association the wizard chairman, Alvin Boyarsky, somehow caught a whiff of a rumoured project, and immediately offered space to show the collection of images. The Polaroids were mounted in 10 x 10 grids, in superb acrylic frames designed and made by John Jones. In this way multiple frames could be hung side by side in lines without gaps. The exhibition Hundreds of Things opened at the AA in January 1987.
Diana Jowsey lent 100 House whilst Simon Moorhouse lent both 100 Trucks and 100 Containers from their collections, to be photographed for reproduction. Jackson Holmes spotted many of the resulting images removing any scratches and dust. The results are as close to the originals as it is possible to get.
In 2024, almost forty years after the exhibition, publisher David Jenkins recognised the results as a historic work and with the designer, Joana Niemeyer, encouraged me to make an equivalent piece corresponding to and reflecting the original art work.