Jacob makes the point that all landscapes are constructed, deliberate fictions and his overpainting draws attention to this fact by inserting another fiction into what has now become a slightly more obvious, albeit ambiguous, construction.

With traces of these histories marked throughout our cities there is a sense that these objects have the potential to embody a kind of public memory, that we would be able to relate to in individual, personal ways – such is the corporeality and utility of street furniture.

Lang’s book comes as a timeous insertion into this debate, offering both rigour and imagination, daring the profession to do more with less.