American byzantium

the long version

"At the beginning of the third millennium, Las Vegas, Nevada has become a new model of consumer entertainment - the total pleasure market in which everything is for sale. Hancock's superb photographic eye chronicles the pop-culture fantasy playground that is Las Vegas, a physical location as much as an idea, a place that deliberately blurs politics, money, art, religion, entertainment, sex, and anything else architects can imagine and marketers can sell. The range of Hancock's images is as diverse as the city itself: the town's neon-saturated nights; the glitzy, monumental hotel palaces; the decaying buildings yielding to wrecking crews; the billboards that sell everything and convey unexpected truths; and a sampling of all that draws a worldwide audience seeking to be entertained." "Accompanying Hancock's images and introductory essay is Gregory McNamee's reconsideration of Las Vegas."--BOOK JACKET.