An Arbitrary Formation of Unspecified Value--Jennifer Quartararo

An Arbitrary Formation of Unspecified Value is a fragmented book-length essay in which we see the city of Detroit through two distinct seasons: the summer Quartararo worked with a letterpress artist in a former veal locker, and the winter she lived on a dead end street slated for possible removal next to a defunct highway overpass. We see the city from the seat of her bicycle, from the #42 bus, and for miles on foot as she meditates on the erasure of memories, the impermanence of bodies, and the disintegration of structures. Quartararo’s Detroit teems with life as she explores the ways people are both shaped by, and take shape of, landscapes.

Jennifer Quartararo’s An Arbitrary Formation of Unspecified Value is a fascinating book that asks, what can a city and a body withstand and endure? This narrator examines Detroit—sometimes while pedaling through broken marble streets looking for wildflowers—and she sees decay, but she also sets her gaze upon beauty, history, and language. The result is an ever-shifting portrait of place and perspective, bound together with Quartararo’s singular lyric voice.

—Chelsea Hodson