Book DescriptionAll too often, the smells and flavors of a city are simple, sad, monotonous, or uniform. Then again, they can be as overwhelming as cheap perfume. In spite of these extremes--or perhaps because of them--the smells of the city are hardly ever noticed. Sometimes, however, the flaneur 's nose catches a surprising freshness, a breeze bearing the merest traces of a scent which captivates our sense and turns everyday banality into poetry. Scents of the City is Ruedi Baur and Isabelle Naegele's collection of samples and patterns found in a wide range of public spaces throughout the world of cities. The result of a multi-year obsession, Scents of the City reveals a dense collection which, for the artists, denotes a "city the flavor of which is so difficult to describe with words." Examples are taken from a wide range of cities, both large and small, and the differences between cities are further expressed through the use of multiple languages, with short...