cover image BROTHELS OF NEVADA: Candid Views of America's Legal Sex Industry

BROTHELS OF NEVADA: Candid Views of America's Legal Sex Industry

Timothy Hursley, Princeton Architectural Press, Alexa Albert, ; text by Alexa Albert. . Princeton Architectural Press, $24.95 (192pp) ISBN 978-1-56898-418-6

There are no people in these 166 garishly colored photos, taken over 18 years by Hursley (Rural Studio ); the desolation of these spaces, both the "ranch" exteriors and boudoir interiors, is what strikes one most about them. As Albert (Brothel: Mustang Ranch and Its Women ) notes, many of the latter have been decorated by the sex workers themselves. Presented here as vernacular architecture, this particular part of America's cultural heritage may inspire less aesthetic pleasure than pathos and concern. (Nov.)