The Work and the Water
by Matthew López-Jensen

The Work and the Water by Matthew López-Jensen is a work of environmental social practice centering the sites of unseen labor required to keep the Erie Canal, a 524-mile inland waterway in upstate New York, operational. In addition to a contextualizing essay by art historian Kim Beil, photographs are accompanied by commentary from the employees who work on the canal year-round. The archive of images he created helps communicate the potentials of the canal as a site for environmental restoration while also conveying the scale of this colossal piece of infrastructure that transformed the region in ways that are still felt today.

Softcover
6 ¾ × 9 inches
104 pages

Published by Inventory Press
2025