Seemingly insignificant architectural elements such as a small inclined plane or a single step influence human behaviour, determining where a person can go and how they move through the city. As such, ramps and steps are connected not only to immediate physical access, but also to broader and less evident power structures.

Depending on ramps for access engenders an intimate relationship, and those reliant on them notice both their presence and absence on the street and in buildings. Respectively depicting building entrances with steps outside their doors and those that provide access with ramps, the complementary photobooks Every Step on Queen Street West and Every Ramp on Queen Street West together form an archive of two basic conditions along one path through the city. Site-strategically exhibited at TYPE Queen West and utilizing the bookstore’s window display as one point of access, this rough catalogue of accessible and inaccessible spaces is presented as a two-volume bookwork alongside selected photographs from the project.

Referencing Ed Ruscha’s panoramic 1966 artist’s book Every Building on the Sunset Strip, the Queen West books are distinguished by their thickness rather than their span: the step-like disparity between the two books makes evident the critique motivating this documentary project, visually expressing the asymmetrical power relations that it alludes to.