First edition, first and only printing. 15 x 12 x 1 1/4 inches. 18 original black and white gelatin silver prints printed by John Gossage, mounted on 14 x 11 inch archival board (18 total boards), with hand-written curses in pencil by the artist, and presented in a custom-made box of natural wood and Plexiglas (with a back-panel that slides open). Essay by Gus Blaisdell in a separate 12-page booklet insert (10 1/2 x 7 inches). Also includes a 1-page interview with John Gossage by Peter Lloyd from 1991, in an separate envelope. This first edition was limited to 100 copies hand-numbered and signed by Gossage. Out of print. Scarce. From the interview with the artist by Peter Lloyd: "It wasn't until 1999 when Mr. Gossage had lost interest in following up on the work seen here that I finally got him to tell me about 'all this shit.' After the usual arguments about whether I would 'really be interested' and the complaints that it should 'all be obvious,' he started to talk about the making of the project he had entitled 'The Plains of Hell.' The Plains of Hell is apparently a Cajun fiddle tune that Gossage has never heard but had always liked the title of. The pictures were made in New York State: Staten Island and the area around Syracuse. The exact places for the images were chosen by consulting the 103c list of hazardous waste sites that the EPA issued. That list details specific locations of massive pollution that have not yet made it to the more public Superfund list. Gossage said that at first he would use a map and drive to the precise locations detailed on the list, but as he did more shooting, he found he could tell when a site was coming up by what you might call 'visual smell.'"