Memory Remains: 9/11 Artifacts at Hangar 17

This large landscape-format book, exquisitely designed and produced, features the remarkable photography created by Spanish artist Francesc Torres, who was granted special access to visit JFK International Airport's Hangar 17 after it became the repository for all significant non-human materials salvaged from the site of the World Trade Center after the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001. With his lifelong interest in questions of human memory and meaning, Torres creates photographs that turn twisted steel or smashed ambulances into objects of contemplation and wonder. Accompanying his chilling photography are several pieces of writing that address the question of what place the memory of 9/11 will take in the history of the United States and the world. Newsweek senior editor Jerry Adler writes the primary text of the book, explaining how the remains of Ground Zero came to be carried to Hangar 17 and what happened to them there. Torres himself, at home in lower Manhattan on the morning of September 11, 2001, writes a memory piece on that day and his feelings in the presence of the twisted remains months later. Yale historian David Blight offers a piece on how 9/11 will reshape American history. The book also includes a statement by the curator of the forthcoming 9/11 Museum at the World Trade Center, where some of these pieces will be displayed.