Ephemerality shows its sweet sad face when the yellowing edges of books you remember buying, and of letters you remember receiving, remind you that it all happened a long time ago. The ability old paper has to set events in time past is not just a personal thing. In Century City: Art and Culture in the Modern Metropolis (until 29 April), Russian film posters, Japanese avant-garde magazines, cheaply produced books from Nigeria, satirical weeklies from 1900s Paris - things piled on stalls and pasted on walls, cheaply made and quickly discarded - tell of their time more reliably and engagingly than great art (of which Century City is not short).

LRB 22 February 2001 | PDF Download