If you've yet to partake of the iconic summer pastime known as the road trip, we suggest Erin Hogan’s 2008 book Spiral Jetta: A Road Trip through the Land Art of the American West (The University of Chicago Press) for inspiration. We've found it gave us good reason to get out on the highway. Hogan, an urbanite, director of public affairs for the Art Institute of Chicago and self-described “lapsed art historian,” set out from Chicago alone to see the big monuments of land art—Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty, Michael Heizer’s Double Negative, and Donald Judd’s adopted home of Marfa, TX, among others.

The resulting book falls somewhere between a cultural critique, a travel narrative, and an art theory text, never leaning too heavily on any of those genre tags. Hogan is a funny and insightful narrator; she recounts coaxing her city Jetta up a remote mesa in Nevada to see Double Negative but also gives serious thought to the actual experience of viewing these works in relation to the theoretical writing of critic Michael Fried, and others. The Lightning Field by Walter De Maria (who died earlier this summer) sounds like the best choice for a road trip based on Hogan’s experience, but also because of the unique visiting experience: to see the work, you have to stay in a cabin next to De Maria’s field of 400 stainless steel poles in the New Mexico desert.

For those curious about the land art of the 1970s and onward, Hogan’s book is a great primer. And for travelers looking for advice about making the pilgrimage to these unique art sites for yourself, she provides thorough details. 

Read an excerpt of Spiral Jetta online.

Michael Heizer, Double Negative (1969)

Walter De Maria, The Lightning Field (1977). Photo by John Cliett