Civilization is the latest gem masterminded by art director celebre Richard Turley – a maybe one-off maybe not newspaper about New York, possibly, even though it’s hard to say. What’s safe to say is that it is unlike anything else out there at the moment, and yet so undeniably now. Irritatingly or refreshingly text-heavy, depending on your point of view, Civilization is a ramshackle cut & paste assembly of interviews, writings, snippets and statistics on what it is to live in a city like New York today. It feels like a collection of these moments when you lift your eyes from the screen and see something unexpected or overhear a snippet of other people’s conversations, only to be swallowed by the next moment. Train rides, hangovers, sex and Balthazar croissants all feature prominently, sitting between crime stats and somewhat random observations, all held together by Turley’s surreal sense of humour. Civilization has the momentum and charme of the unfinished, as if it were put together in a week, even though most likely, every column has been vetted and fretted over in every detail. Or, as it says in the masthead: ‘All mistakes are deliberate, especially typos.’
